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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30024459">For The Love Of Mono</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelOfMystery/pseuds/AngelOfMystery'>AngelOfMystery</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Little Nightmares (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>A TROUBLE-TROUBLEMAKER YEAH THAT'S YOUR MUDDLE NAME, AH YES, Addiction, Adoption, Again, Aggression, And The Hunter who had to get new boots, And takes it to extreme levels, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety, As is custom in LN 2, Attempting to kidnap someone you ahte but getting distracted by yourself, Bad Cooking, Bathing/Washing, Being different is either awesome or terrible in LN, Being smol in a big world, Best Friends, Blind Character, Blindness, Boarding School, Boats and Ships, Body Horror, Body Modification, Boredom, Brain Surgery, Brainwashing, Bruh you have three corpses at your table not healthy, But it's Mono, But let's be real she's a dick, But she's Six grown up so it isn't the healthiest type of caring, Cannibalism, Cannibalistic Thoughts, Child Death, Child Neglect, Children being chaotic, Choruses, Cooking, Cooking Lessons, Crack Crossover, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Crushes, Descriptions of other characters, Detention, Dictatorship, Doctor/Patient, Drug Addiction, Escape Attempts, Everyone gets a crush on him!, Extreme Loneliness, Family Drama, Family Feels, Favoritism, Favourite student, Featuring: the Bullies, First Crush, Fluff and Angst, Force-Feeding, Found Family, Fragile - Freeform, Fragility, Friend Complex, Friendship, GASP, Girl in yellow raincoat gets a crush on him, Going to questionable places with questionable procedures is right up Mono's alley, Guilt, Hand &amp; Finger Kink, He's oblivious lol, Hero Worship, Holding Hands, Honey i'm home!, Humort to angst, I somewhat sympathized her betrayal, I took a lot of liberties wuth this one ok, Inferiority Complex, Innocence, Interns &amp; Internships, Jennifer getting a crush on him and Mono being obivious lol, Kidnapping, Kids Being Innocent, Kinda, Kinda?, Kings &amp; Queens, Like don't you dare die on me i got attached, Lol Mono got grounded, Lol this was fun to make, Loneliness, Love, Man Benny really gets abused in this, Marching, Master/Servant, Maybe some humor, Mindbreak, Mindfuck, Missing someone so much you wail about them every night for a month with your homies, Mono - Freeform, Mono Complex, Mono beibg a good boi and thus being a star student, Mono being respectful, Mono deserves everything good that he gets, Mono experiences so many new things, Mono is clumsy, Mono is precious child, Mono is pretty much royalty now, Mono is seasick, Mono just being Mono, Multi, Nobility, Not a Crossover, Objects that are made from questionable things by questionable oeople, Obsession, Obsessive Behavior, Overprotective Hunter, Overprotectiveness, Parent-Child Relationship, Patients just wanna be left alone tyvm, Platonic Male/Male Relationships, Platonic Relationships, Plot Twists, Popularity, Possessive Behavior, Pouting, Pretender gets a crush on Mono, Protectiveness, Questionable Food, Regrets, Remembering Past Lives, Reunited and It Feels So Good, Royalty, School, Seasickness, Secret Crush, Separations, Servants, She just likes holding hands with him, Signed Hunter, Six actually likes Mono this Loop, Six downspiraling into love, Six opens the Tower, Six sweating bullets while Mono fights monsters, Six's journey through a city full of mono-worshipers, Spoilers, Spoon-Feeding, Stalking, Stockholm Syndrome, Straight up worship, Surgery, Surprise Adoption, Survivor Guilt, THEY AIN'T HAPPY, Teacher-Student Relationship, The Lady being cray-cray with a beauty complex mixed with an inferiority complex on top, The Lady really does care, The Mannequins can 100 percent kick the Bullies' butts, The Maw is literally THE get-away spot in the LN world and it gets all the recognition here dammit, The Nest (Little Nightmares), The Teacher and The Doctor are mentioned, The Thin Mans hereeeeee, The Viewers are just depressed junkies, The Wilderness is infinitely better than Pale City, The annual field trip, The mannequins show up at the school, The most scariest day of them all, The tein chefs get their turn with Mono, Thin Man is touch-starved, Thwarted escape attempts, Time-out, Touch-Starved, Trauma, Truis has a jealousy attack, Unrequited Crush, Unrequited Love, Viewers being smitten with Mono's Transmission, WHY DO I PUT THE BABY THROUGH SO MUCH SUFFERING, Why Did I Write This?, Worship, Yandere, Younger six gets a crush on him, a lot happens, a mystery character shows up, and a leg, and what a turn it is, awkward first meetings, but i always strip it away from him, chorus, fairytales - Freeform, fite me, fragile masculinity, fuck that place, guess who lol, hand-holding, indecipherable screeching, lol jk, messed up shit, overreactions, some weird off-hand theories that make no sense in the canon and is there for convenience, spoiled brats, spoiling, student, teacher, that is, the struggle is real, tyranny, who could it be???, whooooooo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 23:08:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>28,240</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30024459</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelOfMystery/pseuds/AngelOfMystery</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Characters and things from Little Nightmares and Little Nightmares 2 going crazy over our favourite do-gooder bagboy.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Mono (Little Nightmares) &amp; Everyone</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>244</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>441</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Six ways to love a Mono</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Mono saves a number, number falls for him, oh dear.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Life had been peaceful, yet boring, trapped in the Hunter's cabin. Playing her music box had been her primary hobby, scratching pictures onto walls another. Thoughts about a figure, reflected against bright moonlight agonized her all the time. She couldn't keep her mind off of it, the way the white light outlined the figure yet softened it down to a hazy, fog-like creature.</p><p> </p><p>To think, a being she at first thought to be God would be a small boy in a brown coat with a silly paper bag on his face. She had, of course, like a normal person, panicked and hid under a table when a glinting axe bust down the door that had kept her captive.</p><p> </p><p>She still remembered his soft little <em>psst, </em>she still remembered how much warmth his hand radiated, like a fire, she still remembered how soft he felt when she pushed against him to run out to freedom.</p><p> </p><p>She still remembered his gentle, understanding smile when she asked for his help not a few minutes later, when she realized the only way out would be cooperation.</p><p> </p><p>At first, she thought her and this strange bagboy would be allies for only a few short moments. She would have eaten him, and continued on, uncaring. But, with his tendency to hold hands and his little <em>heys </em>and <em>ois </em>made her reconsider. When they ran together from the blast of the gunfire, when they avoided traps and made risky chances, she found herself searching for his hand all on her own. Killing the Hunter brought with it the strangest feeling, a tinge of warmth she contemplated over when he led them to a door and sent them adrift into the sea, in the cool silence and calm. She liked it when he chattered quietly about nonsense, things that didn't really matter, it kept her mind off of bad things.</p><p> </p><p>Maybe she wouldn't eat him, being together was infinitely more safer than being alone, especially in a world like theirs.</p><p> </p><p>In the strange, dark, looming city, where everything was dark and unpleasant, Mono seemed to glow and prosper. He would run around, wondering at things, looking over everything so much it made her head hurt. She found his increasingly growing collection of absurd hats, well that, absurd, but the way he strutted around, acting like a raccoon tail was the latest fashion got a few giggles out of her. She really liked the short football game they had, and the part where he put on a football on his head and ran through the goal posts with his hands up, cheering, made her laugh, really laugh.</p><p> </p><p>Still, she felt death loom at her neck when he was trapped under a locker and she was taken away. The Bullies laughed and jeered, and they strung her up like a washcloth. She was so, so sure she was done for, so sure nobody would come for her, that even if Mono got out from under the locker, he would continue on his way, as was custom in their dog-eat-dog world.</p><p> </p><p>So, when she fell down and looked around, she nearly started crying when she saw his stupid paper bag. She did not, but she did lean into his warmth just that much when he helped her up. He was such an anomaly, an irrgularity in this terrible, terrible world. She was oh-so lucky to have a friend like him. </p><p> </p><p>She exacted revenge on one of the Bullies when Mono was looking for a weapon, and when he noticed her, he didn't scream. He didn't run. He just dropped his weapon and reached for her hand, warm against his. From then on out, she stuck close to him, holding his calloused little hand, letting him guide her in a terrible world devoid of light. Six had one, his name was Mono and he was brighter than any TV screen. If, if he died, Six would keep his hand, she needed him to hold her hand, and stay close to her, the rest of his body warm inside her belly.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They ventured throughout the school, played piano, outwitted Bullies, outran the snake-Teacher, and ended up in a hospital. Mono, in all of his carelessness, would have dropped if it wasn't for her, holding his hand as always. She made sure to wait for him when he lagged behind and intertwine their hands, reunited.</p><p> </p><p>The Hospital was an absolute nightmare. Not for any monsters or scary things, but separating from Mono, even if it was necessary made her feel anxious. She got stressed out when she heard monsters clanking around where she couldn't help him. In her spare time, and to help her anxiety, she started taking mannequin hands and twisting their fingers off. She wondered how his fingers would twist, would they tip back like the mannequins or would they snap, stiff like stone. He finally, finally came back with the accursed battery, and she was so happy he didn't have anything but scratches on him, uninfected. She didn't want him to die from something that wasn't her, after all.</p><p> </p><p>The Doctor was...something else, and Six was so glad Mono and her made such a great team, otherwise they would have died many times over in that place. She wondered if Mono's and her parts would have been mixed together to make a mannequin if they had been caught. She reveled in his burning ashes, warming her hands, even inviting Mono over to share the warmth with her, after all, friendship was sharing, right? He refused, so she just took his hand in her warm one and called it a day, smiling happily.</p><p> </p><p>If Mono ever dared to go and die on her, she wouldn't eat him. She would drag his body around everywhere she went, and curl up with him when it got cold or when she was tired. Maybe then she would learn his face.</p><p> </p><p>So many little things happened. She got a raincoat, a lovely bright yellow that resonated with the yellow rain hat he was keeping on, matching. She enjoyed the claim, Mono was wearing a same-colour hat as she was dressed in, so technically, logically, he belonged to her. He was Six's now.</p><p> </p><p>Six was sure this is what that thing called "love" was like. She convinced herself that the two of them would be forever.</p><p> </p><p>Forever was quite short, in her opinion. It consisted of being taken by such a familiar, familiar, thin man, being taken away from Mono in he process. It consisted of a black state, unfeeling and uncaring, only focusing on a music box. It consisted of a burst of warmth and love when she heard a voice, so familiar, familiar, one she recognized above everything, belonging to her one and only. <em>Mono.</em> </p><p> </p><p>It consisted of looking at eyes only seen through two holes in a bag before and wondering if this is what being heartbroken means. It consisted of running, jumping and taking hold of a hand so dear to her she just wanted to eat it so it could never let her go. She couldn't bear the thought of eating him, him, her Mono, her one and only bagboy, and yet, the thought of being let go of, abandoned, all alone made her freeze up. It filled her mind, consumed it. If she took him up, inevitably, one day, <em>he</em> would be the one to let go of her hand. He would be the one to leave her, leave her all alone, powerless, helpless. He would be the one to let her fall into an abyss.</p><p> </p><p>She just couldn't let that happen! Mono was hers! Hers hers hers! They were so tightly interwoven that one would die right after the other just to avoid the pain of separation.</p><p> </p><p>She had to make a choice. Either pull him up and watch him gradually distance himself from her once he realized how terrible she was, or let him fall with an image of her in his heart, blackened by betrayal yet not nearly as bad as she truly was.</p><p> </p><p>Without a word, she gave that warm, beloved hand one last squeeze and let go, grazing her fingers against his, looking into his eyes, smiling as gently as he had on the day they first met. He would never leave her now. She made sure of it, he was trapped here forever, with only the memory of holding her hand forever burned into his mind.</p><p> </p><p>That should have been enough. It. Should. Have. Been. Enough.</p><p> </p><p>So, why, why was she so hungry?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Teach me?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Mono somehow, someway became the Teacher's golden pupil.</p><p>He doesn't know what to think about this.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>chapter by GuessIllDie69</p><p>Thanks!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Mono sat quietly on his pulpet in the front of the class, nervously wringing his coat. Raising his hand when a silent question was asked, answering and getting a pat on the head and a brownish yellow, a little bit cracked star on his notebook, already filled to the brim with them inside and outside.</p><p> </p><p>It was his fault, really. Him and Six had been just doing their business, when a couple of Bullies snatched him. He didn't hold out hope for being rescued, he just hoped that his dark-haired companion could survive on her own, which she no doubt will.</p><p> </p><p>He quietly looked around, cracked porcelain heads staring intently at their own work sheets, and flinching when a sharp crack of a wooden stick hit a desk when a pupil misbehaved. Mono has never had the wooden stick on his desk. He just quietly does his work and the Teacher just eats up the way he never does anything the Bullies do. He never yells or throws things or scratches school property, so no wonder that Mono is a breath of fresh air for the poor Teach.</p><p> </p><p>One would think that the Bullies would be jealous, but instead they seem to just adore him. Perhaps they just want to suck up to the Teacher, but they almost seem to worship him. The corridors go quiet when he passes by, Jennifers whispering and giggling like schoolgirls with crushes and Truis's and Bennies staring at him, leaning against the walls or each other and sighing wistfully, with a creepy smile on their porcelain faces. Mono would really rather be adventuring, but no matter how many times he asks them to stop, his lockers are still filled with pieces of porcelain and dead flowers from the schoolyard, tied in a bouquet with somebody's overalls. Mono mostly lets it happen, as uncomfortable as he is over it, because the other extreme would be so much worse.</p><p> </p><p>The Teacher always gives him full marks on tests, with unnecessarily many plus-marks. She isn't even attempting to hide her blatant favoritism. At night, when it's lights out, she always stops by in the room where his bunk bed is, and gives him a headpat and a piece of chocolate long gone bad. He still thanks her, and when she's gone, gives the chocolate to the Truis below him, or to the Jennifer beside him. They almost eat it from the palm of his hands, and when they're done, they like jumping from their own beds to his own and curl up there, cooing in their scratchy, high-pitched voices. Mono lets them, and tries to sleep.</p><p> </p><p>Come morning, he gets up to go wash up, the only one actually needing to do that. The Teacher has given him the keys to any bathroom in the entire school. Benny usually tries to follow him to get a look under his bag, infinitely curious. Mono locks him out, and listens to him trying to break down the door before giving up. Mono has learned to wait just an extra bit more, and then bolt out fast as lightning before Truis can sneak up on him, having joined Benny.</p><p> </p><p>Breakfast is slop, like it always is. Jennifer gives him her milk, her porcelain is fragile and can't handle lactose after all. He likes milk, so it's nice. When he thanks her she freezes up and runs off to the other Jennifers giggling and squealing. He has no idea why.</p><p> </p><p>Morning classes are long and tedious, as is custom every day. Except Saturday, that's a break for some reason. Mono has carefully made a schedule of subjects in his notebook, markibg down the time and classroom. It isn't much, but some sort of order and logic made it all feel a little bit better.</p><p> </p><p>Another perk of scheduling is that he now knows the Teacher's night patrol schedule. She patrols from rooms 1-30 from 22:00 to 23:46, taking a little extra to give him the choco and pat him on the head. After that, she goes carefulmy through rooms 31-50, from 12:00-2:00, and then it's free time. </p><p> </p><p>Mono has been preparing for this for days, stealing bread and fruit from the cafeteria, taking down curtains and weaving them together into a long rope, hopefully long enough to rach the ground outside the window of the room he sleeps in. Jennifer even volunteered to help, blissfully unaware of his intentions. He didn't let her, the guilt would just eat him alive.</p><p> </p><p>He knows the Bullies are evil menaces through and through, but during his time here they have been very nice and personable. He knows them. Jennifer has lactose intolerance, Truis likes toffee-filled choco the most, and Benny likes crinkling papers and making messy origami. He doesn't want to hurt them, despite not being friends.</p><p> </p><p>Tonight is go time. He quietly accepts the small piece of chocolate, filled with toffee, so Truis it is. He thanks her, and she smiles at him, her long neck cracking when she retreats back to the floor and goes out, closing the door. </p><p> </p><p>He leans over his bed, peering into the darkness below. "<em>Truis. Hey, psst." </em>A small whine answers him, porcelain moving to look up at him, black eyes twinkling. He shows him the gold wrapper. <em>"want some choco?"</em></p><p> </p><p>Truis widens his eyes and opens his mouth, million sharp teeth poking out of his mouth. Mono carefully unwraps the treat and lets it drop into Truis's mouth, listening to him purring and munching happily from the deliciousness of the choco, filled with toffee, his favourite.</p><p> </p><p>Mono hopes Truis doesn't come up tonight. God doesn't answer his hopes, since he soon hears crackling of old wood, small fingers digging into it in an effort to climb up. "Truis, no--" he's up, peering at Mono. He smiles toothily, and cuddles into Mono's warmth, his eyes dark. His belly is full and his mouth still tastes sweets, of course it's comfortable for him. He yawns, taking Mono's arm and ignoring his pushing and whisper-yelling, goes to sleep.</p><p> </p><p>His escape plan just got infinitely harder. Mono groans, Truis's fingers digging into his palms not helping much. Mono quietly puts his hand over the porcelain one, and curls his fingers over it. Truis's masculine act drops instantly, porcelain fingers curling backwards in order to lace their fingers together. Truis is all too affectionate when he's well-fed and sleepy. Mono takes his fingers back, freeing his arm from Truis's grip. He waits with bated breath, sweat running down his forehead.</p><p> </p><p>The boy just curls up into the sheets and contonues his dreamless sleep. Mono, overcome by a strange burst of fondness, covers the porcelain boy with a blanket.</p><p> </p><p>He then takes a leap of faith and jumps down, rolling down on the carpet and catches his breath. No movement, nobody woke up. Mono catches his breath, and trudges to a corner, pulling out his handmade "rope".</p><p> </p><p>It's now or never. He ties the rope into a bedpost, opens the window and throws it down. Months of this place have gotten him tired of it. He looks down at the Pale City, takes in abreath of cold, crisp air, and lets himself fall.</p><p> </p><p>Controlledly, of course, holding the rope and sliding down it. He can see the playground, so often discarded. He thinks fondly of times playing in it with Six.</p><p> </p><p>Suddenly, his rope swings wildly, and he is flung off of it, still at least three meters from the ground. He braces for impact and impact he does, hitting the ground and rolling along it. When he finally stops, a screech pierces the air. Mono tries to get up in a panic, get up and run through the small gap behind the garbage bin, but he feels huge teeth snatching on the back of his coat, feels the cold, rotten breath and cries.</p><p> </p><p>The Teacher, alerted by a Jennifer and a distressed Truis who woke up without his personal teddy Mono, reyreated her neck and dropped the bagged boy down on her outstretchd hand. He flinched when she squeezed him, so sure he would be eaten like so many others.</p><p> </p><p>But he was her favourite. She wouldn't eat him. But, she still needed to punish him. The Teacher had the bullies tear down his little escape rope, and took him with her.</p><p> </p><p>The Nurse's office was mostly full of tools to fix porcelain, but there wrre a few bandages and watery cold bags for his bruises and scratches. He was surprised she was even giving him aid, afer all, he tried to escape.</p><p> </p><p>In the Teacher's office, Mono sighed, leaning against her desk to which he was collared to with a rope. This was not the usual detention room he once saw Benny in. The Teacher, still adamant about his status as her favourite pupil, decided to keep him in her office, where she could keep an eye on him constantly. She even offered him the choco every night. Mono would definitely be in here for a few weeks.</p><p> </p><p>Well, at least he had a new hat. Even if it was a dunce one.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. A Doctorate's Degree</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Mono goes to the Doctor's for an internship.</p><p>He has a few...interesting experiences there.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Inmyword45 gave the idea for this chapter</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>In foresight, Mono understood that going to the man whose patients never leave the hospital for an internahip is a bad idea. But Mono's mever been stopped by something like that, so off to the creepy building he goes.</p><p> </p><p>The massive ddors that took Mono forever to get inside of opened to a dimly lit waiting room. He noticed a button on the wall that had a sign above it, with the word "Doctor on it. He pressed it, the button letting out a pleasant jingle.There were no patients waiting there, so Mono quietly took a seat in one of the gargantuan chairs and waited. </p><p> </p><p>After a couple monutes of smoothing over his coat and fixing up his bag, he heard a thunderous bumbling sound and soon enough, a man known for his caterpillar-like being stumbled hrough the door, hanging on the ceiling. He noticed Mono, and arrived to the space just above him, looking at him questioningly.</p><p> </p><p>Mono stood up and held out his internship papers to the older man, having to stand on hsi tiptoes to actually reach him. The Doctor took the papers, and after searching his pocket, found a small pair of glasses, put them on and started examining the papers.</p><p> </p><p>Mono stood patiently for a couple of minutes while the man shifted through the papers, contemplating. After a while hough, Mono let out a small "yes" when the man nodded and dug out a pen and signed the papers, putting them away and scooping Mono up into his hands, smiling.</p><p> </p><p>For the next two or so months Mono was mostly kept inside of the Doctor's coat pocket so he wouldn't slip out. He experienced the doctor bumbling about, showing him patients and how to care for them. Mono kept his comments about their state of being to himself, and was egaer to learn how to twist human biology so grotesquely as the Doctor did.</p><p> </p><p>The Doctor seemed very fond of him, often checking on him and when seeing his state of focus when he was teaching him things, harrumphed excitedly. It was understandable, anybody would get lonely and feel unappreciated, locked in a building like this all alone. Mono often chattered to him to keep his brain going, just things he's learned in the boarding school and in his life in general. The Docotr would always stop and listen to his silly little anecdotes.</p><p> </p><p>Of course, it being an internship, Mono was occasionally let down to do some stuff, like organizing storage drawers, or clean up messes, he even assisted during an "operation" one time. The Doctor went out of his way to make it an educative experience for him, detailedly explaining the procedure amd many others like it, and despite the grotesqueness of it all, Mono still learned a lot about biology, so much more than frogs would ever teach him. The Doctor even showed him how the cremation process was done!</p><p> </p><p>Whenever Mono was left alone for a moment by the Doctor, the Patients would creep up on him curiously, and interact with him. Whether it was a playful hand coming to tickle and hug him, a half-patient crawling on the floor to come see what he was doing and poke him around, or a standing patient snatching him up and cuddling him against their chests and faces, the Patients just seemed to adore him. Mono just remembered to never point his flashlight at them while he was doing his business, it would be disturbing the already disturbed fellows in their environment, not to mention impolite. Mono was nothing if polite, so he always kept his light away, and the patients really seemed to like that. He might be the first non-Doctor being they had ever encountered, so it really just made sense. At first, Mono was scared and would run and hide whenever he saw the patients, but over the days and weeks he just...got used to them, it was as simple as that. Though it was annoying to be interrupted during his pseudo-work, the hands especially seeming to come and annoy him at the worst possible times.</p><p> </p><p>"Hey! Cut it out!" He whisper-yell-giggled when a small hand jumped on him from behind and squeezed, tickling him with it's spider-like fingers. The Hand groaned and slid back, slumping on the floor before he gave it's palm a rub. It was like a dog, it really just liked palm-rubs.</p><p> </p><p>He heard a creak behind him, and before he turned around a standing patient had scooped him up and set him on it's lamp head. It was warm on the metal, and Mono was already holding a wipe, so he cleaned the metal and the glass of it's lamp. It flickered on, and off while he did, and the patient seemed to enjoy it. It was probabaly like those deep-scalp massages for them. Mono was glad to help.</p><p> </p><p>The Doctor eventually found him surrounded by Patients begging for a clean-up/massage, and shooed them away, picking him up and examining him. Mono was sore at the wrists and winced when the Doctor picked at them. He was rushed to a hanging bed, and left to wait there. Mono cradled his hands thinking "wow, those patients really need a masseur" when the Doctor arrived, holding something in his hands.</p><p> </p><p>It was soothing cream and gauze for his wrists, and a painkiller pill and a glass of slightly dirty water. He allowed the cream to be applied and wrapped over, but insisted to eat the large pill himself, almost choking on the thing before being patted on the back and washed down with water. "Thank you" he said, gratefully. The Doctor paused and he got a very, very wide smile on his face. Mono leaned back on the bed, and studied the man. He was hanging on the rope connecting the bed to he ceiling, swinging it subtly to entertain himself probably. His coat was very, very dirty, and old, but he supposes it is a security item for the man, like the bag is for him.</p><p> </p><p>"I mean it. I appreciate everyhing you do." He followed up to what he last said. The Doctor made a very strange sound, like a laugh, a snort and a chuckle at the same time, before carefully scooping him up with large, warm hands and then sliding him gently into an equally large and warm pocket. The rest of the day was a break for Mono and he got to doze in the doctor's pocket while the other amn busied himself with organizing papers and patients, sometimes pausing and gently patting his pocket to make sure a warm, tiny boy was still there, safe and sound as he should be.</p><p> </p><p>Mono was woken up by a piece of ham sandwiched between two tiny bread chunks being slid into the pocket with him, obviously meant as a snack. He ate it, and climbed out to see what was going on. The Doctor patted his head with a finger anf smildd happily when he noticed him and otherwise left him alone, focused on sliding a lamp head into a patient's twisting, surging neck.</p><p> </p><p>"These guys really like being cleaned." Mono said thoughtlessly. The Doctor paused and Mono saw his confused ecpression even from the overhead lights. "The other day, when i was cleaning them, they really seemed to like it. You know, when you bandaged me--" Mono let out a tiny hic when the Doctor shoved the lamp straight through the poor patient's chest, obviously angry about something. Mono cautiously patted at his bulging neck. "Calm down, it wasn't that bad, i just wanted to help them."</p><p> </p><p>The Doctor harrumphed, unbelieving but gave in at Mono's glare, allowing him to give a demonstration, and when the lights started flickering on and off, he communicated that he would consider giving them their own personal wipes to play with, there were dozens of them in the Hospital, and Mono wouldn't have to do all of it alone.</p><p> </p><p>It wasn't what he hoped for, but Mono was willing to reach a compromise with his semi-employer. Mono cared a lot about hygiene, asking the Doctor every few minutes to go down and wash his hands, goading the other to do the same, he was a <em>doctor </em>after all. The Doctor, unused to being goaded like a child, but it <em>was</em> Mono, so he still did it to please him.</p><p> </p><p>The time spent in the Hospital, swinging from bed to bed with amazing feats of parkour and flexibility that even impressed the Doctor, playing with the Patients and entertaining them, organizing lockers and trying to keep the Hands at bay while doing so, flew like a bird set free. Mono could even say he had fun, after all, it was the first time he'd ever slept on a floating bed! Hospital food was pretty okay, and the Doctor proved to be as skillful a cook as he was a surgeon. Though the man had a slightly unnerving fixation on patting him and petting him and putting him in his pocket to be safeguarded at random times in the day, especially with patients nearby. The Doctor really just wanted to keep him warm and uninjured, and well-taken care of. Whenever Mono got so much as a scratch, the Doctor would act like his life support had malfunctioned and gave him a dozen bandaids, effectively immobilizing him for pocket-keeping. He would groan and moan and make unhappy noises whenever Mono so much as tried to poke his head out to check what was going on, acting like a huge caterpillar baby if Mono dared to complain. Mono swears he even saw the Doctor pouting one time, though it wasn't very noticeable with all of his wrinkles.</p><p> </p><p>The Doctor sometimes took Mono into his hand, poking and prodding him, listening to his pulse, checking his breathing, blood pressure and sugar level, fed him overly sweet juice from juice boxes if it wasn't to his liking. He checked on Mono's wrists daily, almost seeming to curse the lamp-headed patients. From the looks of it, he became an overly fretting mother who was also in the medical field, obsessed with keeping her son healthy. The internship became less working and more being health-checked and doted on by the Doctor evey few hours.</p><p> </p><p>In the end of his internship, this seemed true, the Doctor sobbing and crying, holding Mono close to his face while he did. Thankfully, he wasn't trying to keep him from leaving, instead cursing the very notion and wallowing in grief.</p><p> </p><p>"I promise to come back sometime." He soothed, rubbing over the bulbous wrinkles. The Doctor looked at him quietly, before his eyes lit up and he st Mono on the ground, carefully as always, and turned to rummage through his desk. Moni stood there patiently until the Doctor finally emerged, giving him two things and sending him on his way, patting him one last time on the head.</p><p> </p><p>Once outside, Mono looked through the items. One paper and one card. The paper seemed to be a diploma of some sort, wrinkled and curled with age. The word "Doctorate" was the most prominent on it. The Doctor had given him his own Doctor degree?</p><p> </p><p>Mono then looked at the card, simple and white, cracked in some places, with words written in black cursive.</p><p> </p><p>Mono looked at it questioningly, before reading the words out loud. </p><p> </p><p>"100% percent discount on all treatments...?"</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. For Viewing Pleasure</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Mono breaks a TV in front of a Viewer. But instead of a ferocious, rabid attack, something else happens.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Chapter by bellpepper</p><p>Thank you!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Viewer flinched back when a terrible <em>crack </em>disturbed the peaceful imagery it had immersed itself in. All the wonderful colours, the lovely sounds, the soft crackling of static, gone. Gone! The hypnotic mesmerization that gave it an escape from the ruin of reality!</p><p> </p><p>It moans pitifully, not capable of forming the word "no" despite it's despair. It had no mouth, not any longer. The awfulness of the rotted buildings collapsing in on it made it's malformed chest start malfunctioning, anxieties and insecurities and depressions flooding into it's brain now that the lovely hypnosis was no longer there. </p><p> </p><p>That, that thing....that thing which broke it's precious drug...it deserves to die! Die, die, DIE!!!</p><p> </p><p>It snapped it's neck up, ready to suck out the disturbance's life for good, when suddenly it feels an oh-so familiar hum of energy, twisting, shifting in the air, one it's body was so accustomed to, one it needs to function, to breathe, to <em>live.</em></p><p> </p><p>The Viewer looks down, down, down to the source of the lovely static clinging to it's mind, pacifying it, soothing it like a lullaby. A small child lays on the ground, knocked out from his harsh landing. <em>(Somewhere inside it, a twinge of protective instincts long gone bad).</em> The little child is so small, impossibly tiny, and yet the paper bag on his face is what catches the Viewer's interest. A...mystery? It loves mysteries! It adores them!</p><p> </p><p>Soothed, cradled by the humming coming from the child, mesmerized, taking every little detail of him in. The crinkle at the corner of his bag, the small white calluses on his hand, his left sock frayed at the edges. It can't stop watching him, it can't, it can't it'll die, it'll die for sure. Anxiety festers in it's mind, the same as that one time it's TV fell into the water of it's bathtub and never turned on again.</p><p> </p><p>So, without thinking, the Viewer scoops up the little boy into it's hand like a ball of ice cream (chocolate...it can't recall the taste though) and stares at him. Realizing it can hear the soft bop of Statik, the enthralling energy of Deathburger, the cheery whistles of HypnoScout, realizing it's starting to see colours, filling it's vision until all it can do is sink into that loving, calming embrace it's so used to.</p><p> </p><p>It's breathing sstarts to calm down, so calm, so nice, so lovely. How soft the boy is in it's hand, how small, something could easily swoop dowm from the sky to snatch him away...NO!</p><p> </p><p>The Viewer squeezes the little thing tightly, holding with both hands, close to it's chest as it looks around paranoidly. Nobody else is there with it, but anyone could come from the corner and steal it's treasure away!</p><p> </p><p>A scream wakes it up from it's trance, and it looks down to see the boy desperately struggling, trying to get out of it's hands. Too uncomfortable? The Viewer loosens it's grip just a tad, and the boy yells in confusion, thudding out of it's grip lnto the road.</p><p> </p><p>Ooh, action! A hero fighting against fate! The Viewer feels a flutter in it's chest as it watches aptly at the boy struggling to get up. This little boy in a paper bag is so much more entertaining than anything it's ever watched before! He was tragedy, comedy and satire all rolled into one tiny body! The little boy gasps wetly, coughing, medical drama. Looks up at it in terror, a thriller. Gets up swiftly to run away, an escape seque--</p><p> </p><p>Wait! Wait! Don't go! The Viewer desperately wishes it had a mouth so it could say all of this. It chases the little boy fervently, but he's so small, so fast, <em>too fast--</em></p><p> </p><p>A thump is the only thing that remains of the Viewer, disappeared down a giant gap between two sides of the road Mono hopped over without effort.</p><p> </p><p>Mono collapses onto the ground, shaking, adrenaline stabbing into his veins as he holds his head, trembling. He had never been so scared before. He had just gotten out of the TV, everything felt black. The next thing he knew was pain in his entire body as ge was squeezed from all sides, bony fingers digging into his ribs. But what was more terrifying was what he saw when he looked up.</p><p> </p><p>A Viewer, staring at him like he was a TV, with fleshy, skinny tendrils coming out of its face, seeking to be joined with the Transmission blaring full force inside of him. They had almost coiled around him when he managed to get out of it's constricting hands. It rushed at him, hands outstretched in desperation, addiction, trying to catch him and join with the trembling Broadcast squirming under his skin.</p><p> </p><p>He took shaking, terrified breaths, soothing himself with the knowledge that the Viewer was now dead, and it couldn't try to shove itself down his throat, forcibly feeding itself to him.</p><p> </p><p>A sound of static woke him up, and he exhaustedly looked up, widening his eyes when he saw a thin, bony hand reach for him, no, multiple of them, all stretching for his limbs. He backed away, only to bump into a pair of feet, slowly looking up, crying out under his breath.</p><p> </p><p>The Viewer smiled, well, at least it tried. It brought itself up from the ravine by the sheer force of it's desire to be addicted to this little boy. It scooped him up again (strawberry, vanilla, mint, rainbow--) cuddled him against it's deformed face, a face that more than anything wanted to conjoin the lovely humming boy into itself and tangle together forever.</p><p> </p><p>But it had to share. The Viewers were a community, watching TVs together, sharing shows, programmes and movies. It thusly presented the trembling little thing to the raving crowd, all bunching up to reach and see the strongest, best Transmission there was.</p><p> </p><p>The Tower had realized Mono was the next big thing, channeling the Transmission straight to him. This, along with the stress of being watched so closely, so tightly, suffocatingly, with only his paper bag for a barrier from their prying, hidden eyes made Mono panic. He cried, trembling, taking fast, shallow breaths, trying to curl up and hide.</p><p> </p><p>The Viewers sensed a change, a strange change, one they had a feeling they've all experienced before (crying, "Mama!' Papa, i'm hungry!", an insistent tug at their clothes, dirty faces, small faces, thin faces, so closely resembling what they used to be, before the TVs appeared)</p><p> </p><p>The Viewer at the front of the crowd approaches the crying child, and with a tug, the boy is released into arms, cool arms, twisted, malformed. The Viewer starts rocking him back and forth in it's arms, humming the soft tune of Statik to him, gently holding him close. </p><p> </p><p>Mono startles, a small "Mama" coming out of his mouth without thought, after all, it wasn't that long from when he was cradled like this every day. So much had happened, all the adults turning into this, children left to fend for themselves. All Mono had wanted for a long time was to be cradled like this for just a little while again.</p><p> </p><p>The Viewers, not understanding how they suddenly knew how to take care of the child, indulged these strange, well-meaning intincts without thought, so lovely was this addicting child, they should give him back something for soothing them. For giving purpose in their life again.</p><p> </p><p>The next day was a strange one for all of the Pale City. It watched as Viewers ran here and there, organized for the first time in years, some to convenience stores for blankets and pillows, others to grocery stores for all the nice, not moldy food and drink they could find. It was chaos, Viewers bumping into each other, ignoring the TVs that had once monopolized their attention, now set onto the one that they adored.</p><p> </p><p>Mono was left with three Viewers, guarding over him while he sat in a hastily repaired apartment in the center of the city, in a child's room. He felt a pang of guilt for having taken over another's room, after all, having their own rooms was a big deal among the children.</p><p> </p><p>The Viewers left with him kept his attention off of that though. They cooed to him, played peek-a-boo with him (Mono was a bit annoyed at that, he was young but not <em>that </em>young) and even sang children's songs to him.</p><p> </p><p>Suddenly, a swarm of twisted individuals crowded into the room, startling Mono.</p><p> </p><p>But he was more bewildered than anything when he was smothered in blankets and lumpy pillows, in front of a fireplace and a small slice of bread in his hands and a juice box beside him. He looks around in shock, but the Viewers who put him there in seconds were more than content to circle him at a distance, watching him tenderly.</p><p> </p><p>Unnerved by their gazes, Mono looks into the dancing, sparkling fire, and takes a bite of his bread. Suddenly, he's hit with a guilty conscience. Here he is, warm and safe and clean and with food, when so, so many, unbelievably, sickeningly many are cold and dirty and starving to death, all alone. He puts down the bread, guilty beyond belief.</p><p> </p><p>The Viewers gave a different idea, taking the bread and holding it to his mouth. They seem to be trying the "say ahhh" or "here comes the aeroplane!" Trick on him. He shuts his eyes and tries to block it all out. He wrenches them open when a finger forces his mouth open and stuffs bread into his mouth. The Viewers are relentless, after force-feeding him bread, they squeeze the juice box into his throat until it's dry.</p><p> </p><p>He heaves, shaking, looking around in his cocoon of blankets, fisting the fabric.</p><p> </p><p>Suddenly, all of the Viewers break out into a soft lullaby, one he recognizes but doesn't remember from what (a music box, a slender hand twisting the handle, a soothing melody in the air)</p><p> </p><p>He's warm, safe, and his belly is full, even if it was unwanted. Mono clises his little eyes and falls asleep, watched closely by many, many eyes, all aiming to keep him safe and cared for.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Hunt you down</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Mono is in the Wilderness, and gets caught by the Hunter.</p><p>But the lonely huntsman isn't in a mood for taKIDermy today.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Chapter by deathmittens28 and Ninetailsyaboi</p><p>Thabks! Appreciate it!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tripping on roots was common for Mono while he was doing his escaping. The undergrowth was unnaturally massive in the Wilderness. </p><p> </p><p>Still, they left him tumbling down, clutching his bag so it doesn't fall off. Enormous footsteps near him, and he splutters dirt out of his mouth and gets up to do it all over again.</p><p> </p><p>Until finally he can't anymore and doesn't get up. Quivering with shaky breath, he awaits his death, either at the boots of the Hunter trampling him, or the gun's blast that will leave nothing left of him but a splat of red.</p><p> </p><p>When neither of those happens, he opens one eye, careful, careful. Carefully, he tilts his head from his place on the ground, only to press it right back down at the brightness of that lamp, before adjusting his eyes and looking up again. </p><p> </p><p>The Hunter is a massive, vague shape stretching above him, cloaked in green and the sack on his face leaving too much to the imagination. He's just, standing there, breathing heavily, menacingly. A rough gloved hand picks him up, and the Hunter brings him up to his face to take a good look at him. Mono realizes, all too suddenly, that soon his guts will be taken out and replaced with stuffing. His breathing picks up, and he tries to curl up on himself. A <em>bang </em>that rings in his ears painfully snaps him out of it, the Hunter gas his rigle angled to the ground, a smoking hole found in the greenery. A warning shot.</p><p> </p><p>Mono tries to calm his breathing, half-succeeding, before the Hunter starts walking. His heart's beating distorts and he panics. Kicking, flailing, struggling. The Hunter pauses and shakes him up before continuing, Mono's head feels dizzy, his whole body feels dizzy. He feels so tiny, just a small shake was enough to disorient him until he couldn't tell left from right anymore. He shivers, and is promptly deposited into a large breast pocket. He curls up, and waits.</p><p> </p><p>The wait is over surprisingly fast, the Hunter's big feet and his knowledge of the area helped them get to his cabin. The Hunter took off his boots, and put his loyal rifle next to the door, scooping Mono out of his pocket. The boy's bag had crumpled, and he just sat there, on his impossibly huge hand, just an innocent child. Despite what he had done to many others like him, The Hunter....felt a small twinge in his chest when the bagged boy collapsed on his front, exhausted. The Hunter could feel his little heart hammering right at his fingertips, could feel the rise and fall of his chest on his palm. The Hunter moved the hand holding the boy closer to himself and just stared at the boy, curled up on his hand. With a squeeze of his fingers, he could easily crush this child, break his ribs and puncture his lung...he was so fragile...so easily hurt...</p><p> </p><p>The Hunter realized with a pang how similar he and this child are, both hiding from the world, and both so, so, unbearably lonely.</p><p> </p><p>The Hunter cradled the child with both his hands to support his small weight, holding his hands very, very close to his face, close enough that his breathing flew the edges of the small trench coat the boy had wrapped himself in. He stroked the boy's back with his thumb, and ventured deeper into his cabin, into his bedroom, and set the softly breathing child down onto his single bed, taking the time to make a nest out of his blanket, and gently laid the boy down into it's center.</p><p> </p><p>He left, and clised the door behind him gently, as to not startle the boy from his sleep.</p><p> </p><p>____________</p><p> </p><p>When Mono woke up, he wasn't sure why he had woken up, sure that passing out in the Hunter's hands would be the last thing he would ever do in this world. So, when he found himself nestled in an old blanket, his brain took some time to process it. It was absolutely the Hunter's, his dirty, musky smell permeated every corner of this room. Mono rose up and walked to the edge of the bed, gulping when he saw how far down the ground was. He would break his legs if he tried that! Instead, Mono started considering to make a makeshift rope out of the sheets of the bed, but his houghts were halyed when a sound of thumping feet filled the area, immediately, he made the jump, just for he chance, just for a chance to hide.</p><p> </p><p>On impact, he realized what an idiot he was. No, he didn't break his kegs, but instead got his head knocked against the wood and almost got a concussion. He wad in no condition to move, and again, just waited for his death. Instead, whrn the door was opened, he smelled something weird. He felt something be st down, and was scooped up, again, and placed back into the little nest of blankets, having them tucked around him. He warily stared at the Hunter in a white apron, sitting at the bedside with a tray on his lap. Mono watched him take a rusty old spoon, dip it into a cracked bowl, and have to stretch the thing inside to get a spoonful of it. The squelch made Mono's stomach roll. The Hunter peacefully held the spoon for him, and oh tower what a spoonful it was. It was slimy, and meaty, and spongy, and it jiggled when the Hunter shifted to bring it closer. Food is food, Mono guesses, and the Hunter would definutely ahve killed him with firearms rather than poison. He's survived on worse things anyway. Mono lifted his bag enough for his mouth to show, opened it and bit in. Ugh, it was so stretchy, it felt like dry jerky in his teeth, but stretchier and more strong-tasting. He chewed it valiantly, and swallowed hard, panting. He froze up when another spoonful was presented to him, the Hunter's bag offering no expression. Mono gulped and dug in again, repeating the process again. When another spoon was presented, he backed away and held his stomach, shaking his head. The Hunter persisted for a few moments, before giving in and letting him have a sip of water from a bottle cap.</p><p> </p><p>Now fed and hydrated, Mono stared at the Hunter and the Hunter stared at him. Tjeir staring match continued until the Hunter wordlessly took him up and deposited him feet first into his pocket, so his head could poke out. He then started walking around the cabin, showing him different rooms, the kitchen, the dining hall, attic, storage room, work room (Mono shuddered), everything. Afterwards, the Hunter rubbed Mono's head with his huge finger.</p><p> </p><p>Mono got adopted, weirdly enough, but he could endure it, after all, the alternative is beyond worse.</p><p> </p><p>The Hunter was so lonely, with only his taxidermied corpses for company, so having Mono there, with him, alive and well, gave him a feeling unlike any other. Watching the child bustle about in his home made the caretaking instincts he previously thought non-existent soar.</p><p> </p><p>They had spent a few weeks togther, getting adjusted to this new situation, when te Hunter scooped up Mono one day, and took him with him outside, trusty rifle in hand. Mono's heart skipped a beat, so sure that the Hunter had only been fattening him up yo be slaughtered like a pig. When, instead of dying, he watched from the Hunter's breast pocket how the man shot down an 8-foot tall moose, he was bewildered. He cried out, being so close to the noise was unbearable, the ringing unstoppable. The Hunter looked down, and saw him hold his head and cover his ears, distressed. He made a noise, held a hand ti the pockt the boy resided in, patting with his huge hand until the boy calmed down. He made a questioning noise, and Mono shakily lifted a hand to point at the gun, wincing at the ringing between his ears, bouncing in his skull. Where nobody could see, the Hunter's eyes flashed in understanding.</p><p> </p><p>When they got back to the cabin, the Hunter took his rifle and put something on it, which Mono didn't understand. But when the Hunter aimed his rifle at a mannequin at the table and shot, instead of unbearable blast and recoil, only a small burst was heard, a pop, and then the mannequin's head exploding. Mono felt weirdly touched, the Hunter had silenced his trusty gun just for his comfort.</p><p> </p><p>A month has gone by, and Mono has been officially been lulled into a sense of security. He sat at the dinner table with the Hunter, sipping his soup. They never talked, instead communicating in noises and body language. The Hunter ruffled Mono's bag, happy with the crinkling sound it made.</p><p> </p><p>"When...can i go to the city?" A soft, young voice asked, quietly, the first words ever spoken between them. The Hunter's hand paused. A gruff, rough growl answered Mono's question, sounding oddly like "No."</p><p> </p><p>The Hunter thouht of faceless monsters almost strapped to TVs, he thought if a long, snake-like neck and of a face falling from hanging upside down. Never. His boy could never, never go to the city, to that terrible broadcast. He would only be corrupted, tainted, put through endless suffering and then sucked up like a drink. His hand closed around Monos waist and he yelped when he was taken up from his seat atop a few books the Hunter kept on the chair so he could actually see what was going on on the table.</p><p> </p><p>The Hunter put him in a room in the basement, some time-out would take out bad ideas like leaving here. What was the Hunter to do if his boy was gone? Go back to talking to corpses? Back to an empty house when he came back, to a cold in his chest spread anew everytime he was reminded that he was alone now? Back to an emptiness so deep only one child could fill it and keep it away. <em>His </em>child.</p><p> </p><p>The boy was his child now, he picked him up, he spared him, he took care of him. They're family now. And family will never leave their own behind.</p><p> </p><p>If Mono ever tried to escape, the Hinter would taxidermize his legs so he couldn't be able to use them anymore. He was skilled enough to do that. Besides, his breast pocket was warm and spacious and filled with snacks all the time, so whenever they went on their bonding-hunting trips, he could still be completely safe and sound.</p><p> </p><p>Maybe go even further and make his entire body into a doll, but keep his brain, heart, veins and nerves intact, so he could still be alive, but now unable to move.</p><p> </p><p>Mono suddenly got a bad premonition that if he were to ever try and leave, it would be the worst thing he could do to himself. He just buried his face into his knees and wept.</p><p> </p><p>Family stays together.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Janitorial Duties</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Roger gets a guest, but he's not the usual kind.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Chap by Ninetailsyaboi!</p><p>Thank you! And i think i kinda messed up the internship part(?)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A staticky thump interrupted Roger's librarian duties. It seems to have come from the backroom with the TV. He can hear the pitter-patter of tiny feet. A child? In the library?</p><p> </p><p>The footsteps pause when he's at the door of the backroom. Roger turns around to face the child. He's curious. How did a child get here? It's so late, each one of them should be asleep already. He makes a raspy, questioning "hello?". The child is breathing heavily, is it hurt somewhere? It sounded like a rough landing this one had. The mystery of it's sudden appearance can wait, one Roger's duties is to care for the children until it's time for their shipment to the kitchens. He reaches out his arms and searches around for a tiny body, before he finds it. He takes the child up gently, and oh, oh, he doesn't know this fabric. It's rough and aged against his equally rough and aged fingers, not at all like the smooth outfits the children here have. When he feels up, the most peculiar thing awaits his touch. A paper bag? There are two holes in the center, it's on the child's head, a disguise?</p><p> </p><p>"N-noooo..." he hears a tiny whimper, and he freezes up. It's so small, and hoarse and this child clearly hasn't had water for a long while. "Don't eat meeee..." the child moans, squirming against Roger's hands. How oddly endearing, Roger thinks, stroking the back of the child's head soothingly as he ventures over to the Janitor's quarters. He <em>should </em>bting the child to where he obviously belongs, to the children's quarters, but something prevents him from doing that. There's something about this child that distinguishes him from all the others. To explain it, the child feels like nobility, like royalty, like a....like a...</p><p> </p><p>Bumbling, crashing, loud rhythmical footsteps come to mind, the poor old floorboards creaking under their bulbous weights, the sound of meat being endlessly crammed into jaws agape, unhinged slurping and sucking coming from their fat mouths. Roger shivers, not that. But, instead, something like a cool, gentle humming, slender fingers carefully untangling sleek hair, swishing robes curling around small feet that make no sound, a gaze so piercing Roger can feel it. That kind of nobility, elegant and beautiful despite the fragility of it, such immense power in a weak form. It makes Roger want to worship it, to serve it, such power, such purity, such <em>godliness, </em>so different from the world he fled away from</p><p> </p><p>Roger lays the weakened child down on his bed gently, carefully, worshipful. The child's head sways and he yawns quietly. Roger could never in his life let this child mix with the filthy ones in the Prison. He could <em>never. </em>His conscience wouldn't allow it. How could he voluntarily tarnish such beauty?</p><p> </p><p>He gently patted over the child's body, looking for injuries. He found none, so this small child was none the worse for wear, just exhausted. Roger sighed in relief. He tucked the child into his bed, darkened the lights and left the room to continue his patrol. Oh, and he left a glass of water on his bedside table. If the child woke up, at least he'd have water.</p><p> </p><p>____________</p><p> </p><p>When Mono woke up, he wasn't sure what was going on. He fisted a sheet...wait, a sheet?! He snapped up, feeling a nauseating rocking suddenly, and curled up with a hand on his mouth, gagging. Oh god, he's seasick. Where is he? This is nowhere near the Pale City. He tried to peer around the darkness, but the lack of light and the rocking made ut hard for him to focus. He gagged again. It feels like he'll throw up, he hates ships so much... wait...a ship?</p><p> </p><p>Suddenly, posters with unkown letters on them with a picture of a turtle-shell looking thing witha chimney on the sea flashed through his mind. Out of the words, he recognized only the biggest of the. "The Maw..." he whispers, horrified. He's heard stories, legends of a huge, terrifying establishment that travels the world and appears always at the same time, but never the same place. It's a place for the greedy and the gluttonous, a place of corruption and twisted enjoyment for only the most evil and messed up individuals.</p><p> </p><p>And he's right in the center of it.</p><p> </p><p>He was just trying to warp from a TV in the apartment he was in, he subconsciously followed the strongest signals. How was he to know the most infamous pleasure house was right there? Why is there even a TV in this wretched place?</p><p> </p><p>He has to get out of here before it disappears and takes him along. Mono gets up and adjusts his eye sto the darkness, hopping to a table next to the strange, short bed. Apparently there was something on it, somehing he knocked over and something that shattered, <em>loudly.</em></p><p> </p><p>The door opened and Mono came face to arms with a creature he'd never ever seen before. It was short and it has a hat and it's mask is one he's seen before, but it's <em>arms. </em>They were so long and twisted and lengthy, like the Teacher's neck.</p><p> </p><p>He hitches his breath, squeezing his eyes closed and waiting for death, but when it doesn't come, he cracks one open. The weird man is patting over the bed he just was on, a confused noise coming out of his mouth. The lights were on, and Mono was right there. Did he not see him? Mono peered closer to the creature, and saw its mask bunched over it's eyes. Is this monster...blind?</p><p> </p><p>"Oi." He calls out quietly, on stupid impulse. The monster snaps his head towards him, making a raspy sound. Of surprise? Joy...? "Hey." He calls out again, this creature doesn't seem to be hostile. The creature turns around entirely towards him, taking steps towards him, pausing when he feels glass against his foot. He takes his arms back, and Mono flinches at the way they crackle. The creature pats around his feet, taking a shard of glass and holding it up. "Sorry." Mono says apologetically, rubbing the back of his neck.</p><p> </p><p>The creature hums, and shakes his head. He gathers all the glass and takes them to a drawer on the impossibly tall drawers Mono just noticed. This area is probably the creature's room, designed for his long arms. He really shouldn't trust an adult so easily, Mono chides himself. But it's somewhat hard when he adumt gives him a full glass of water. The rocking is still there, but Mono needs all the hydration he can get after everything he's gone through.</p><p> </p><p>"What's your name?" He asks, sipping his water quietly. He's being oddly well-behaved. He swings his legs. </p><p> </p><p>The older man pauses and considers, long arms settling on the ground around him comfortably. He makes a rasp that sounds like, like..."Roger?" Mono asks, and he gets an enthusiastic nod. Roger...it sounds so ordinary. It's such a normal name for such a not normal man.</p><p> </p><p>"I like it." He says, looking down at his water. Roger squeals and chirps, sounding oddly like one nome Mono encountered once during his time in he Wilderness. "Are we on the maw?" He finally asks the question that's been gnawing him for a while. He gets a nod.</p><p> </p><p>Mono gulps nervously, he realy is on the infamous child-slaughterhouse, and he's conversing with one of the staff of that child-slaughterhouse. He eyes Roger, who knows how many this man has sent to their doom. He shudders and gets chills down his spine. Being in such a bloody workhouse could make anybody's hair stand on end.</p><p> </p><p>Anybody's except Roger's, who picked him up after hearing something from a distance, deposited him into a pocket on his coat and went off to work it out.</p><p> </p><p>__________</p><p> </p><p>Roger would seem to be a janitor here. Weird, but Mono supposes that even creepy bloodspilling restaurants have to have someone to clean it all up. Roger seems to be enthusiastically pointing out  all aspects of his work, from repairing wood furniture, organizing different fabrics and threads, and bringing equipment to different places using the lone elevator in the area. He patrols the area, like the library, and a strange room full of toys and things for children between electric bars, an entire cafeteria, even bigger than in the School, also caged, and an entire room full of beds and sleeping children. Mono wonders what their fates will be, and shivers. He so wishes he could do something, anything. But Roger is too unrelenting, too detailed in his work, he never gets an opening.</p><p> </p><p>Roger navigates these things perfectly fine, even if he couldn't see. Years of this kind of daily routine must have taught him a lot of things like this. Mono's been here for only a few weeks, and he can already tell what it has been like for longer.</p><p> </p><p>There's only one mystery about it though. Roger, during the final parts of his routine, always puts some thread around the eye-holes of Mono's bag, so he didn't see anything. He could hear heavy dragging sounds, a screech of metal against netal, and fabrics and thread being wrapped around objects to be hanged on some kind of moving line? Mono was always unsure if the heartbeat or whimpers he could hear sometimes were his own anymore.</p><p> </p><p>Mono wasn't stupid. He could tell that children <em>(oh, oh god) </em>were being tied in fabric and thread and hanged up on some sort of meathooks, like, like some sort of messed up livestock! He could hear their breathing, so faint and weak, but still hearable. Mono's instincts were to save them, rescue them but anytime he tried, The Janitor always held him back, either by tying him up with string, or closing the zipper on his pocket.</p><p> </p><p>The question was, why wasn't he already in there? If the ones being wrapped wrre children, didn't he also qualify? And why did Roger so desperately try to prevent him from seeing the carnage? It made no sense to Mono. Why was he so nice to him? Why wasn't he held wherever the other children came from? Why did the Janitor insist on taking care of his every need!?</p><p> </p><p>When he asked this later that night, with a half-eaten sandwich in his hands, Roger paused. He suddenly got a very crooked smile, and stretched his elbow back, back, back, so that his palm could be in the range of a normal arm. He cups Mono's cheek gently and tilts it up so he can look at him better.</p><p> </p><p>"Pure." He rasps, gasping for breath. Mono freezes in confusion. "Different." The Janitor continues, chirping. He strokes his fingers up Mono's cheek. <em>"God."</em></p><p> </p><p>Oh. <em>Oh. </em></p><p> </p><p>Now Mono knows why there is a TV even in a terrible bloodhouse like this. Now he knows why he is treated so differently. He looks down, and a stray tear slides down his cheek.</p><p> </p><p>Nothing can escape the Transmission, not even the most infamous get-away in the world.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Six Ways To Love A Mono, Part 2 Returned</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Six has succesfully conquered the Maw and returns to rescue Mono from the Pale City.</p><p>He doesn't look to be needing rescue though...</p><p>No matter.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Chapter brought to you by MasterOfThAUs</p><p>Thank you for the requests! I'm not getting burnt out yet!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Once upon a time, syanding on the deck of the huge luxury cruise ship, a child in an iconic yellow raincoat stares at the visage of buildings bending like candy canes in the fog. Distant creaking and rumbling come from the city. That's where Six needs to go. Six needs to retrieve the one and only friend she's ever had. </p><p> </p><p>Six thinks it's very nostalgic. If only the huge ship underneath her feet were an old, abandoned door and a boy with a brown paper bag on his head was using a stick to steer it, it would be exactly how it was back then, so very long ago. She remembers how scared she used to be, how small and vulnerable.</p><p> </p><p>Not anymore though, she muses, her shadows curling around her in the air. She's become stronger and more powerful, enough to prottect herself, but most importantly, enough to protect the one she left behind. Six is going to get her Mono and whisk him away, back into the safety and security of the Maw. Nothing could ever hurt him again, Six will take the souls of anybody who even tries to look at him.</p><p> </p><p>A low rumble takes her away from her thoughts, the ship has reached the coast. Six proceeds to step off of the edge of the deck and float herself down onto the sand with her shadows. She lands gracefully, and feels a childish semblance of pride at it. She looks towards the TV on the shore, and sets out.</p><p> </p><p>She demolishes all obstacles in her way, be it trashcans, walls of concrete, or asphalt. She stops suddenly and looks at the schoolbuilding. She might just be remembering wrong, but did it ever look so...bright? The playground is filled with children, <em>real </em>children, and there's a light from every window. The children are playing on the playground, something she never thought they could do from what she gathered from her journey with Mono. She passes through the remains of the metal fence, torn down so they can come and go as they please. She passes all the children playing and opens the door with shadows. It definitely is brighter. Walls have been painted and devorated again, and the old, rusty lockers have been replaced. Six looks for any raised floorboards but finds none, they've all been replaced with prim and proper ones. She walks into the classroom to not the chilling silence, but the lively chatter of children waiting for study hall. The desks are still old, and so is the teacher's desk and blackboard, but the chalk is new and there are actual words on it instead of the scrabble of the tower she saw one time. Six see a TV, and it's jingling, but not the same as before. She walks closer and listens in.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Hello! This is your new boarding school channel, children! Here, you can check your schedules, timetables, extracurricular activities and what is for lunch today! We have also started a name-day campaign! Happy Name-day to Jenny!</em>
</p><p> </p><p>One girl behind Six squeals in glee, and then in terror when Six shoos her away with her shadows, eyes transfixed onto the static of the TV.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>The wonderful Broadcaster is to thank for for all of these new, nice things! Remember to thank him! The schedule for today is--</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Six smashes through the TV, much to the displeasure of the other children, but a snarl from her quiets them down. Not for long, though, because soon the children are squealing and talking about the Broadcaster, how cute and handsome he is, how nice and kind and overall perfect he is, how glad they are to have him for their city, and Six wants to scream and take all of their souls right his second.</p><p> </p><p>Instead, she goes on, unhindered through the peaceful halls filled with soft chatter and normality. No more porcelain bullies wreaking havoc, instead little children happily going about their day. Six doesn't destroy the peace, because it feels so familiar, it's so <em>Mono.</em></p><p> </p><p>The terrifying Teacher has been replaced with somebody else, somebody who waves at Six instead of stretching her neck and eating her. Changes have definitely been made.</p><p> </p><p>The Cafeteria is lively, but not loud, pleasant chatter filling the hall. The food actually seems to be quite decent, the students devouring it happily. Six doesn't feel any hunger pangs that would force her to climb up onto the food trays and eat them right off, and she's glad.</p><p> </p><p>She walks through the bathroom, still untouched, and kicks one of the rotted boards on the floor, and tears the rope in two, staring hatefully up at the ceiling where she was hung up. Thank goodness her friend saved her back then, all the more reason to get him out of here. Despite the new brightness of the school, she can tell the evil hasn't been cleansed yet. She wants out, and she wants Mono with her.</p><p> </p><p>Buildings crumble before her power, and Six demolishes them until they are mere rubble. She looks up, and freezes, The Hospital. She wonders if they have taken a new Doctor to replace the one they cooked up, and would rather not know.</p><p> </p><p>Either way, she goes inside, and looks around. It's the same brightness as the school, with people sitting in the waiting room. Six quietly walks through it, and nobody tries to stop her. Something has definitely changed. TVs are still playing, but not the same meaningless jingles as back then. Six pauses as it starts over again. </p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Hello! This is your new hospital channel! We can happily tell you that the hospital building has been renewed, and all are welcomed in! This time, we've taken precautions so that the carnage caused by the previous staff won't happen again! You have the Broadcaster to thank for all of this! Remember to--</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Six turns it off quietly, better not to irk the people here too much. She clenches her hand around nohing, and it shakes until she slios it into her own hand, squeezing like that sentimental idiot used to. Everywhere around her, the people waiting are excitedly murmuring and praising this Broadcaster, telling how great and gracious he is, and how much he's done for them and how much he still has planned for them, only them and how happy they are to have a lovely boy like him for a leader--</p><p> </p><p>Six growls and they quiet down. She goes on, storming through the facility. She goes through the surgery rooms, the beds that have been taken down from hanging on mid-air and instead placed in orderly rooms with numbers pn their door, filled with patients that are actually being cared for. She goes through the storage, the morgue, she goes through the incinerator room. She meets a woman in a white, clean coat who patrols the hospital and smiles at her. She finally gets out and falls onto her knees, shaking. She feels so gross, Six isn't meant to be in a clear, pure place like that, she doesn't belong there. Mono, she needs to find Mono. She needs to find him amd take him away from this gross place. They don't belong here.</p><p> </p><p>She treks through the city streets, eyes on the towering form of The Tower that ruined it all. She knows he's in there, Six just knows he's in there. Inside that black, black signal tower, inside those fleshy, fleshy walls, there's a little boy waiting for her. Six <em>knows.</em></p><p> </p><p>The apartment buildings everywhere are...different. They're not as bright as the School or the Hospital, but different for sure. They're..  repaired, in a way. Not that much, just starting out, just beginning the chain of reactions that would end in the same normality as the previous facilities. People on the streets are carrying planks and toolboxes and cement rollers, eyes intense. Six catches sight of a group of them organizedly putting planks and bricks onto a demolished wall and repairing it, working in perfect coordination. She hears a TV nearby, and looks over to see a group of Viewers before it. She pushes them out of the way with her shadows, and floats up to look at the static and hear better.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Hello! This is your new apartment block channel! As you know, the block needs to be repaired and cleaned, so we enlist the help of anybody out there who can hear this channel! We'll give you instructions on how to repair your houses and furnish them to perfect condition! You can thank the Broadcaster after your work, because new cafés and restaurants and gyms and pther places to express yourselves and relax have been opened on his command!</em>
</p><p> </p><p>The group of Viewers cheered and immediately started organizing themselves according to the TVs instructions while Six floats there in stunned silence. It seems that the TVs still rule the citizen's lives, but into a...better direction? Despite her disgust, Six has to admit the things she's seen are most definitely progress. That doesn't mean that this place is any good for Mono, though. Six is incredibly single-minded when she wants something, and this, what she has planned for the two of them is something she's wanted ever since Mono first took her hand.</p><p> </p><p>She floats down gently and sets out, hood down. There really are relaxation places here, Six thinks when she sees a modernized TV cafe. Although, the Viewers seem to have much lower standards, she muses, looking at a pair of legs sticking out of a trash can. She kicks it over, delighting in the confused screech.</p><p> </p><p>She sees a train station with a schedule going straight to the Tower. Trains are faster than walking. She stands until a train comes by, and waits patiently and gracefully for the doors to open. She's a lady now, she has to represent her establishment properly.</p><p> </p><p>When they eventually do, Six gets on, and the threat of having his soul taken keeps the driver from asking her payment. Power really is fun, Six muses, swinging her legs while sitting on a seat, looking out the window at the City while the train speeds. Flashing lights fill the streets as Viewers move in unison and TVs instruct them, she can see the School and the Hospital's red plus-mark.</p><p> </p><p>She can see the tower right up ahead, and she gets more determined than ever.</p><p> </p><p>Determination can't get the thing to open up to her though. Six huffs and puffs, having tried to wrench the multi-layered doors to open for a while now. She tried, once again, to use her powers, but they seemed almost to be expelled from the tower's surface. She kicked it for good measure, but the thing didn't budge. Six did <em>not </em>come all the way here only to be stopped by a stupid door.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong> <em>HEY!!!</em> </strong>
</p><p> </p><p>She yelled with her hands cupped around her mouth. She wasn't looking at the door anymore, instead, she looked up, up, up, up at the top of the tower.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> <strong>HEYYYYYYYY!!!!!!</strong> </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> <strong>HEEEEYYYY-YYYYYY!!!</strong> </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> <strong>HEY!!!</strong> </em>
</p><p> </p><p>The door groaned, ad if in pain, and opened up for her, revealing the pink lights of the Tower's insides. </p><p> </p><p>Six grins.</p><p> </p><p>______________</p><p> </p><p>One thing she did not account for was how difficult it was going to be to navigate this ever-changing maze of a thing. The Tower seemed to be laughing at her for every failed attempt to traverse to the top or at least a different floor. Six did not give up, she has a goal, at the very, very top.</p><p> </p><p>What felt like days, weeks, months came to an end as she walked through the most brightest doorway of them all, almost getting blinded but continuing on.</p><p> </p><p>The static of TVs was the first thing she heard. She opened her eyes and saw a room with plush carpets and a mountain of TVs everywhere, showing the entirety of the Pale City.</p><p> </p><p>But what caught her attention most was the shocked gaze of a familiar, so, so familiar child, without a bag. She purred and stepped into the room. A soft whisper "Hey..." left her mouth, which was smiling.</p><p> </p><p>Mono snapped out of his trance and lifted a trembling hand against the TV by his side, eyes trained on Six, his chest trembling. Six knew what he was going to try, and he's <em>not getting away that easy.</em></p><p> </p><p>Mono let out a gasp when the TV siddenly shattered without rhyme or reason, and hopped down from his plushy, soft, elevated throne in the middle of all the TVs. Well, he tried, because Six was on him before he could blink. He let out a frightened cry, and Six paused. </p><p> </p><p>She leaned close to his head, nuzzling her cheek against his hair. "Missed you..." she whispered, tightening her grip on his wrist and bringing it up against her cheek affectionately. She intertwined their hands...</p><p> </p><p>"Get <em>OFF!" </em>Mono yelled, and a sudden forcefield threw Six against a TV screen, cracking it slightly. She glanced up and saw a glowing white ball around Mono, who had tears in his eyes. Six got up stubbornly, and he tensed up. She walked up, and put her hand against the forcefield tenderly, leaning her body against it, grinning at him. Mono stared at her, sniffling. "Miss me?" She asked, putting her other hand against the wall, not pushing. Mono looked down, trembling. "City is different." She states, tapping her fingers against the field, smiling when she sees how Mono shivered.</p><p> </p><p>"...Changed things" he says, finally, begrudgingly. Six grimaces, thinking about the disgusting normality around the City. "How?" She asks, pushing her fingers against the field. "..." Mono glances at the TVs, and Six understands him, of course she does, they're best friends. "Broadcaster?" She hums, looking at him. "...mhm" he sounds in confirmation. "They love you. Can't stand it." She presses a hand against her chest. "You're mine."</p><p> </p><p>"No more!" He yells, the forcefield shaking. She looks up at him challengingly, dare him to say that again. "Betrayer." He sniffs, looking at her angrily. "Hurt me." Six laughs, teeth showing as she grins. "For the best! Forget!" She looks at him tenderly, clawing at the field separating them. "You know i"m friend." The glare he levels at her disagrees. "Always. Forever. Friends." Finally, he crumbles, starting to cry.</p><p> </p><p>"Why? Why?!" He yells through his tears, franctically wiping his eyes. The forcefield is starting to crumbe, bending when she presses closer. The TVs flicker, and Mono is so beautiful in their light. "Would have left me. So left you first. Came back to get you." She gives her reasoning, stroking the forcefield on the spot Mono is reflected on. She digs her nails in. "Let me there."</p><p> </p><p>"N-no..." he moans, not looking at her until she gets out her shadows. He widens his eyes and scrambles to strengthen the barrier, but Six is faster. Her shadows dig in and break through, causing him to double over in pain. He flinches back and growls when they curl around him, his torso, his arms, his legs, even around his neck. Six strolls over, the vair on her neck standing up at the hum of electricity around him, and she hugs him. He feels the same, he hasn't changed at all. She hugs him tighter, both with her physical arms and the amorphous, black ones around him. "Mine. Still mine. Always mine." She growls possessively, backing away and taking his face into her hands, cupping his cheeks gently. He struggles against her shadows, and bites his lip until it bleeds. She tenderly wipes the trail with her finger and sticks it into her mouth, and oh, he tastes the best.</p><p> </p><p>She casually strolls over to his weird throne-chair and sits down, setting him down beside her, lacing her fingers with his. She leans her head against his shoulder, and they watch TV together.</p><p> </p><p>"Why change things?" </p><p> </p><p>"Children. They need a safe place."</p><p> </p><p>"Why care? Dead soon anyway."</p><p> </p><p>"Give everyone a good life. Done all i can from here" he shows the TVs with his hands.</p><p> </p><p>"...so weird. Saw boat dock. Why do they not go?"</p><p> </p><p>"Don't know. Gave them opportunity. Broadcast too strong maybe." He clenches his fist and she sees spark of static and energy.</p><p> </p><p>"So strong. My Mono." She nuzzles his shoulder affectionately. "But i'm stronger." </p><p> </p><p>He looks at her blankly. "Come to Maw with me. Safe, food, good." She proposes.</p><p> </p><p>He shakes his head. "Can't. Busy. Have to build the city." He glances at her coldly. "Still don't trust you."</p><p> </p><p>"All the time in the world." She says, uncaring. "Mono has no choice. But can make it all better." She smiles sincerely. "Six loves Mono the most. Mono love Six too?"</p><p> </p><p>"Long ago. Not sure anymore." </p><p> </p><p>"Start over. Make it better this time. Won't let you fall again." She pats his hand assuringly. He lets out a dry chuckle. "See? Mono likes Six. Only a matter of time until love."</p><p> </p><p>"Someday. Maybe. A children's channel is right now. Want to watch?"</p><p> </p><p>"Yes, with Mono." He switches on the channel, and they watch the black and white cartoons.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Hand in hand, heart to heart, side by side. Six came back to get what's hers, and he'll like it, surely, once he sees how great the infamous underwater pleasure house is! Six will give him all the food in the world, and they'll be together forever.</p><p> </p><p>The End.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Patience Running Thin Man</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The Thin Man decides to capture himself, then promptly deciding it to be the best thing he's ever done.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Chap by chelsea</p><p>Thank you!!!! Man we really need more of these things.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A man quietly watched the figure of a young boy with a bag on his head, opening a door. He could see every crinkle of his bag, every huff of breath he took on his chest, every teeth in his little mouth when he opened it to scream.</p><p> </p><p>The Thin Man stood up.</p><p> </p><p>He pressed his hands against the screen of the TV, looking at the scene in a bedroom. A flash of yellow enters his view and he <em>pushes.</em></p><p> </p><p>The Thin Man slowly unfurls himself. He looks down at a raincoated child, and he <strong><em>hates</em></strong> her. He hates her so much, so blindingly. He starts to give chase when she leaves, running, leaving his younger self behind like she always does, like she's done countless times, like he's chased her countless times, prompting the bagged boy to rescue her countless times--</p><p> </p><p>No. Why is he contributing to the Loop? He pauses. Why is he helping the very thing that's had him suffering all this time? He looks down, down, down, at a child he's never thought about before, only focused on a blinding hateful yellow before. He sees how tiny he is, how painful the Transmission is for him, and the Thin Man, he--he--</p><p> </p><p>He picks him up, without rhyme or reason, and he feels something twist inside him, feels something break and shatter inside him, and suddenly, he's free. Free of the hate inside him, of the bitterness, of the vengefulness. The yellow menace couldn't be further from his mind, because he's free now. He doesn't care about her anymore, he doesn't care about <em>anything </em>anymore, anything but the tiny heartbeat against his fingertips, the terrified squeaks of breath coming from the tiny creature they're originating from. The Thin Man lets the girl escape, he has something far more important. Something far more valuable than any version of <em>her</em> ever will. He has himself.</p><p> </p><p>He brings his tiny self to his mouth, and presses a small kiss against his ribcage, feeling the thundering heartbeat right there, against his chapped, cracked mouth. He aches to kiss his tiny head as well, but he of all people knows how important the little bag is for him. Instead, he affectionately strokes it, feeling the smooth texture against his finger. He's so engrossed in his little Mono that he doesn't notice something yellow sneaking back into the room, up until he feels a sharp prick at his foot. He holds Mono against his chest, cradling him, before looking down, down, down. Along with her teeth, Six tears into his glitched flesh with her nails, leaving tiny scratches.</p><p> </p><p>"S-six...go, go now, run away!" Mono cries out for her weakly, swinging his hands. "Leave!" He yells, struggling against the Thin Man. The said Man looks down at him curiously, and squeezes him in his hands, making him gasp and cough. The yellow-coated girl tears her teeth out of his leg, and instead starts attempting to climb her opponent, aiming to reach Mono and rescue her. The Thin Man extends a hand, and pulls her up against it, beinging her up to his face. She bares her teeth at him, swiping her claws at him and growls. What did he ever see in this girl that made him want her so? He holds her at a distance, and brings Mono up against his face, rubbing his cheek against his front affectionately. The said boy squeaks and pushes him with his arms, while the yellow devil herself starts throwing a tantrum, screaming and kicking her feet, trying to reach her hand to  Mono. Mono reaches a hand for her as well, and their fingers graze softly against each other, survivor and survivor, killer and victim, enemy and friend...</p><p> </p><p>Six and Mono. "Hey..." Mono says gently, linking their pinkies. The demon looks up. "Hai." She rasps, reaching out to lace their fingers...</p><p> </p><p>The Thin Man casually tosses her out of a window, the glass shattering at the force. She screams all the way, and he doesn't hear a thud. "Six!" Mono screams, trying to lung out of his grasp and towards the window. "Six!" The Thin Man tightens his grip, and he gasps for breath. "S-six..." he leans back, and his bag falls off, floating gently to the ground. The Thin Man deposits it away for a later date, looking up and freezing.</p><p> </p><p>Small, silvery tears welling up and sliding down chubby cheeks, lashes trembling. "S-six..." he cries, clawing at the Thin man's fingers wrapped around him securely. He starts sobbing, panicking when he realizes he doesn't have his bag. Thin Man holds him closely against his chest, letting him soak his tie, and let it all out. <em><strong>Don't cry, my child. </strong></em><strong><em>She's not worth it. She's not worthy of your tears, for you, nobody is. </em><em>Only you yourself are worthy and perfect. And me?</em></strong></p><p> </p><p>
  <strike>
    <span class="u">
      <strong>
        <em>.;I= A÷M" yO*U;;._</em>
      </strong>
    </span>
  </strike>
</p><p> </p><p>_______________</p><p> </p><p>The Thin Man walked through his city. Buildings leaned towards him, Viewers splattered to the asphalt all around where he walked, and even the rain curved in order to not hit him. Mono, trapped in long, gangly arms, watched all of this happen numbly. (<strike><em>Where was Six?)</em></strike></p><p> </p><p>Another Viewer splatted next to them, and Mono flinched. He stressfully hid his face, wishing he had a anything to hide from the horrible world. <strike><em>(What happened to her?)</em></strike></p><p> </p><p><strike></strike>The Thin Man seemed to be fixated on, playing with his body and limbs with his long, deft fingers. He would turn him this way and that, and even took his hand between a forefinger and a thumb, as if holding it. <strike><em>(Was she alive?)</em></strike></p><p> </p><p><strike></strike>Mono wondered why this adult did not want to kill him like he did Six, but instead tenderly wiped his tears and massaged his back, stroking his face and messing his hair by carding his blackened nails through it. He protected Mono from the rain, huffing warm, stale breath on him to keep him from getting cold. How could such tenderness be from an adult who threw Six out like she was trash? <strike><em>(Was she alright?)</em></strike></p><p> </p><p><strike></strike>The Thin Man took him to a black tower, towering over Mono and making his eyes water from the sheer intensity of the Transmission here. The Tower trembled excitedly,  a slave to the Thin Man's desires as much as he was a slave to it's. The Thin Man never spoke, and yet the Tower could tell his intentions, and formed itself accordingly. <em><strong><strike>(Stop thinking about her. You're hers no longer)</strike></strong></em></p><p> </p><p>Mono blinked and suddenly, he was warm. A cozy fireplace lit up the small area. The Thin Man stroked his front, holding his back against his chest, pressing small kisses to his hair. He stroked Mono's jaw affectionately, and his collar, his waist, his elbows, his ankles and his toes, he absolutely showered himself in attention. Unused to such, Mono squirmed in confusion, whining when the Thin man stroked his belly.</p><p> </p><p>"L-let me go! I want to find Six! Let me go!!!" He was dropped, and then suddenly he felt a terrible burning pain that was over in a second but still tingled and crackled under his skin. He stared up at the gray face of the Thin Man, in shock of being shocked. </p><p> </p><p>
  <strike>
    <em>(I want to find Six)</em>
  </strike>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>
    <strike>
      <em>[Don't talk of her]</em>
    </strike>
  </strong>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <strike>
    <em>(Why?)</em>
  </strike>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>
    <strike>
      <em>[Only me from now. Just me]</em>
    </strike>
  </strong>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <strike>
    <em>(I don't know you.)</em>
  </strike>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>
    <strike>
      <em>[You do]</em>
    </strike>
  </strong>
  <strike></strike>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>
    <strike>
      <em>[■■■■■■●●●●■■■●Meet●●●●●●■■■■■●●●●●●••••■■■■■■■■Six●●●●●●■■CITY■■School•••••○○○○○○○○♢♢♢■■■■■Teacher■■■■●●●●▪▪▪RUN■■■■♤■■●●●●●●▪▪▪▪●</em>
    </strike>
  </strong>
  <strong>
    <strike>
      <em>Doctor●●●●●■■■■Toy●●●●●●●●BURNED ALIVE●●●●●●●■■■■HELLOMONO■■■■●●●●ITSME●●●●●■■■■S●I■X●●●●FALLEN]</em>
    </strike>
  </strong>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>
    <strike>
      <em>[Do you remember me?]</em>
    </strike>
  </strong>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <strike>
    <em>(No.)</em>
  </strike>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>
    <strike>
      <em>[YOU WILL]</em>
    </strike>
  </strong>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <strike>
    <em>(NO)</em>
  </strike>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>
    <strike>
      <em>[YOU DO]</em>
    </strike>
  </strong>
</p><p> </p><p>"NO!!!" Mono screams finally, and Thin Man smiles. <strong>I am you, as you are me. </strong>The poor boy sobs, curling in on himself. The Thin Man takes out his bag, and shows it to him. <strong>I will protect you from the world, so you don't need this any longer.  </strong>He rips it in half, making Mono cry even harder. He strokes his head. <strong>Cry all you want. You've been stronger than this entire world for so long. You deserve to let go. </strong>Mono sniffles and  looks up at him, teary dark eyes meeting eyes darkened with affection.</p><p> </p><p><strong>You're safe here. She can't hurt you. None of them can hurt you. </strong>"Only you." Mono says, defeated. The Thin Man nods. <strong>Only if you're bad. If you're not bad, it will be better for both of me. So just relax. Look into the fire. Your new life will start, safe and sound here, where nothing can hate you ever again.</strong></p><p> </p><p>Mono did as he was told, turning in Thin Man's lap to look at the fire. A place where nothing hates him? Where he is safe, and warm, and unquestionably loved? With a friend as well? <strike><strong>Six</strong></strike> The Thin Man.</p><p> </p><p>The Thin Man loks at Mono, tilting his head to check how the mindwash is working. He hates to treat his special Mono like the expendable Viewers, but using the Transmission to soothe him into security is essential if he wants to build a good relationship with himself. Father, older brother, mentor or friend, it doesn't matter.</p><p> </p><p>As long as Mono never falls into the dirty hands of the yellow-coated girl limping in the city alleys with eyes trained on the Tower, the Thin Man is satisfied.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Unladylike</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The Lady in her quarters, receives just the oddest guest.</p><p>He's one that she recognizes, so it's alright.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Chaptee by MephilesTheLight and XQ1UE830 (XX1322847) and InkMario</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sleek fingers lovingly brush down in sleek, untangled hair, humming a song so familiar. The Lady watches her reflection in the shards of the mirror in satisfaction. Oh yes, she is the most beautiful--</p><p> </p><p>A sudden crash awakens her from a self-absorbed trance, and she glances towards one of the back rooms. One of her children? A guest who fumbled their way up here in a lust to see her? The Janitor? She tilts her head and decides that either way, she shall investigate.</p><p> </p><p>The Lady starts to float towards the sounds, now clearly coming from the backrooms. Is that...whimpering? Did one of her children get hurt? No no, they cannot get hurt, she made them that way, in her image. The Lady is invincible, and so are her offspring.</p><p> </p><p>The door swings open for her, and she looks down, down, down, down, letting out a short exhale of shock.</p><p> </p><p>There, on the pristine hardwood of her floor, lays a small child. Oh, oh no, it's not just any child, although very small and scrawny. It's...</p><p> </p><p>"Mono." She says, with a shake in her voice she's desperately trying to control, but one glance at his little brown paper bag overthrows it. The Lady, extremely impolitely, kneels down to look at her guest better, her hair faliing away from her carefully made up-do. "Mono." She says again, a slender, white hand coming to touch him, caress him, but she hesitates, rising up once more.</p><p> </p><p>What if he is simply another hallucination her feebling mind had made up just to torment her? To pull on the last remaining strings of her heart and rip them out? The Lady stared at the child critically, eyeing him up and down like the Eyes do. There's a little crinkle at his paper bag, and he's breathing softly, whimpering sometimes and curling up. He certainly <em>looks </em>real. But reality isn't always what it seems.</p><p> </p><p>A soft crackle forces her undivided attention to divide and she glances up, and hitches her heart when she sees a black old TV, letting out hisses and sparks of electricity from the broken screen, whizzing out like a lightbulb. She...she forgot this thing even was here...Mono...if he truly were her beloved Mono....he could have gotten through.</p><p> </p><p>Her thoughts of hallucination broke instantly, partly because of that thought, and mostly because the haze-conscious boy uttered out a name she hadn't heard in decades. </p><p> </p><p>"Six..." Mono moaned, and The Lady stared in awe, before holding a hand against her mask's mouth and staring at the boy in shock. Even if they were hallucinations, none of them would ever dare to utter her long-discarded name. None but her Mono...he truly was her Mono. She pondered on what she had possibly done to encourage this kind of good karma, this sort of luck that brought her a second chance. This was a second chance, another chance of being with the one she loved and love him right this time.</p><p> </p><p>In her excitement, she does not notice the boy stirring, confused where he is and why he's here, before glancing up and seeing an adult who was clearly going insane. He bites back his yelp of surprise, before crawling back, eyes trained on the masked lady and what she might do next.</p><p> </p><p>The Lady was brought out of her indulgent fantasies by the sound of a flooboard squeaking and when she looked down in confusion, she saw a small bagged child standing up and backing away, his arms up in defense. She swore her heart broke a little when he ignored her when she called his name and turned to run away completely. The Lady understood, she truly did, but it hurt still. She took solace in the fact that Mono wasn't capable of leaving her quarters, and leisurely waved her hands, shutting out all the lights. She sat on her chair and went back to fixing up her hair for when he was brought back to her. She wanted to impress him and show him how gorgeous she is, after all.</p><p> </p><p>Mono ran as fast as he could through the strange residence, the soft carpeted flor feeling so much nicer against his feet than the slippery cobblestones of the City. The adult was horrifying, covered in darkness and the screams of a million children. He ran as fast as he could, never stopping or taking a break. He's strong, and he's fast--</p><p> </p><p>"Oof!" He sounds when he suddenly gets tackled to the ground, head banging against the floor. He feels dizzy, and he's not sure if he's coherent when he feels a cold hand on his collarbone, twitching weirdly. He opens his eyes as the hand starts stroking his neck, and yelps in surprise when he sees a remain, with a black, incomplete face and dark, twisting hair. No, this is not a glitched remain...too solid...too cold...</p><p> </p><p>"What...who...?" He mumbles, confused. He hears a crackling chirp above him, and more cold hands descdend on him, holding his limbs surprisingly gently as they chirp in unison, and start...carrying him?  Mono was unsure, he groaned in pain, and shivered when one of the things flicks its tongue out and licks a stripe up his exposed cheek. It leaves behind a numbing feeling that crackled, and he bites his cheek in order to not make a sound. He suddenly recognizes the path he and the strange shadowfolk are going, it's straight back to yhe adult lady. The must be the adult's minions! He flinched when a cold cheek rubbed against his hand reassuringly(?) And he just stared at the ceiling as they carried him away, nuzzling and chirping. No, rather than minions, they're like birds whose wings have been clipped and who are forced to assist the clipper. In a strange fit of sympathy, he caresses the forehead of one child and the chin of another. It seemed to bring them pleasure, these poor things, so he kept on doing that until they suddenly dispersed into thin air, right in the entrance of the place he started out in.</p><p> </p><p>The Lady brightens up when she sees her disoriented beloved, smiling wide underneath her mask. She does not speak, but instead glides up to him and snatches him up with her power. Oh, her poor Mono had never known levitation before, so he struggled and kicked, not saying anything. If she had to bet, his eyes were screwed shut right now, he was so scared of heights. She reaches out a hand and touches his chest softly, tracing the body part lovingly, reaching around his waist and holding him up within her hand, supporting his weight in one hand. He looks so small and tired, laying lifelessly in her hand. She could hear his hartbeat at her fingertips, so she knew he was fine.</p><p> </p><p>The Lady cradled Mono and caressed and stroked every part of him, from his feet to the top of his paper bag. She traced her fingers down its side, down his neck, over his shoulder, and down, down, down until...</p><p> </p><p>She stared at his limp hand unsurely, the crooked little fingers outstretched, every callus and every line of his palm assaulting her mind's eye. Did she even deserve to have this? Have him? All to herself, in the depths of the depths of a pleasure-iskand fit for every appetite, in her hand, looking up at her with such confised black eyes...</p><p> </p><p>She tried to hold herself back, but a small sob escaped her as she wrapped her hand around his impossibly tiny one, holding it, like all of that time they spent apart was nothing but a bad dream, and they were holding hands and he was leading her to another grand adventure with that big, goofy smile on his face...</p><p> </p><p>She promised herself a long time ago that she would not cry a day in her life after she let go of his hand. But now, with his tiny fingers curling around one of hers, she finds hot tears sliding down her ruined face. They drip from under her mask, and one of them splashes against Mono's bag, making a wet, dark spot on it. The Lady panics, she hadn't meant to dirty him with her sinful self! But, he's not struggling anymore, and is instead just laying on her hand, with his hand wrapped in the other, looking at her.</p><p> </p><p>She doesn't know what he thinks, and he doesn't either, so they stare at each other in silence. Then finally, he reaches out and presses a hand against her mask. She can almost feel his warmth through it. "Don't cry." He says kindly to her sniveling self. "It's okay."</p><p> </p><p>Oh, her Mono is just an angel, isn't he? The boy the Lady loved back when she had a raincoat and even when she didn't. The very woman who rules the The Maw is melting with affection for the small child held in her hand. She can't help it, it's <em>her </em>Mono after all. Hers and only hers, always and forever.</p><p> </p><p>"Mono." She croaks out, holding him against her cheek. She has to protect him. Thank goodness he ended up inside of her nest, what would have happened if he fell into the, say, Guest area? They would have torn him to shreds before he even got his bearings! She must protect him from everything on this ship, and yet, this is the safest place for him to be. Deep underwater on a ship that disappears for all but once a year, furnished with luxurities and amenities with space for him to grow. Maybe she can get him to wear matching yukatas to show his status?</p><p> </p><p>She coos at him lovingly, stroking his paper bag. She's curious, endlessly curious, and just a little peek would harm nobody, right? He's seen her face before, so it's only fair, right? Now stripped of her inhibitions, The Lady carefully takes a corner of the paper bag and gently pulls it off, looking at him silently. </p><p> </p><p>Oh. <em>Oh. </em>He, he is so, so... <em>Handsome Good-looking Adorable Beautiful Pretty Gorgeous Lovely Exciting Long-awaited <span class="u">Perfect</span> .</em></p><p> </p><p>His wide, dark eyes, his messy, tousled dark hair and his fair skin, his little red mouth and that tiny pointed nose, are all so <em>perfect. </em>The Lady brings a hand to her cheek, she swears she must be blushing, hot blood coursing through her face as she watches intently at her dearest love, and the pink that tints his cheeks as he hides his face behind his arms, reaching for the paper bag on her other hand and pulling it back on, slumping and facing away from her. The Lady blinks, is he...sulking at her? </p><p> </p><p>She wants to kiss him all over to pamper him and appease him, but just as she reached to her mask to lift it up, he turned and looked at her curiously. It's duch innocent curiosity, but it freezes her hand all the same. She bites her lip, feeling it's deformed shape. How could she forget? She was so lost in the moment, Mono made him feel young again, a child again, <strike><em>Six </em></strike>again. She thought that she was pretty again, when in reality, all of her mirrors shattered in order to not have to reflect her ugliness. She looked terrible, absolutely horrible, and she was going to show it to Mono? Such arrogance from her. She anxiously pulled her mask even better on, and looked away from his gentle eyes. She must never show her ugliness to him. For her love of Mono, she wants to be perfect, beautiful. She wants him to fall in love with her one way or another. She sounds so horrible, but it is the truth. Even if she never reveal who she is to him, she wants him to adore her as much as he adored that yellow-coated traitor of a monster.</p><p> </p><p>She cares too much for her one and only to let him experience any cruelty at all. It IS her establishment, so keeping him away from danger should not be all that hard, right? Wrong. Her love always had a knack for trouble. She tolerated his little escape attempts at first, with a firm word with him each time he got caught, but she believed that love could break down even the most rebellious spirit. And she did love him, in all actuality, he was the only thing she loved, liked or cared about at all. She thought that it was enough, that her obsession with him would convince him to stay with her and just be happy together in their little den. It was so simple! Just a happy life full of good food and a warm bed to cuddle with a loved one in when they got tired. She was possessive, for sure, but that was her only flaw as a partner, she swears! She cared about him, she really, genuinely did!</p><p> </p><p>She cared about him enough to swaddle him with blankets and offer him warm chocolate whenever he got too far outside her residence and inevitably got a cold in his tabby clothing he refused to trade for the warm ones she prepared for him! </p><p> </p><p>She cared enough to introduce him to her staff and instruct them to take care of him and bring him back to her, and if they touched a single strand of his hair with malicious intent, she would <em>personally disrembowel them!</em></p><p> </p><p>She cared about him enough to suck out the life force of an important guest when he fell out of a vent right in front of them, so delicious and ripe that even <em>she </em>would desire to eat him until not a single bone was left of him outside her body, <em>she </em>with the most self-control on this entire ship!</p><p> </p><p>She cared about him enough to line the floor of his cage with soft fur of his favourite colour and texture, so he wouldn't have to hurt himself on a hard metal surface! She only put him in a cage in the first place because she cared, and wanted to protect him! She still treated him well and lovingly like a good partner should! She searched every nook and cranny for more hats to add to his collection, even! Just to make him happy, all to make him happy!</p><p> </p><p>The Lady would do anything so that Mono never left, so that he would stay and be safe and healthy here. She would do anything for his security and happiness. She would even drive herself insane in order to please him, despite Mono himself trying to tell her it wasn't necessary. She would only allow her meat to be fed to him, only flesh filled with purity and love pumping in each vein and nerve and fiber could possibly be good enough for her special, special Mono. She would ruin herself completely in order to be with him.</p><p> </p><p>The Lady would do <em><strong>anything </strong></em><em>for Mono.</em></p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Anything at all.</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>__________________</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Six wiped her mouth while staring at the dead woman before her, feeling raw, pure, absolute power flow into her from the woman's corpse. The eyes of the woman were still somewhere they shouldn't be. Six frowned and kicked her head away, snapping it from her neck and sending it rolling away, black hair covering it's eyes so it couldn't look at <em>her </em>Mono again.</p><p> </p><p>"Six...?" A shaky, scared voice asked her name, and she turned to meet frightened eyes. She smiled toothily, and Mono flinched back. Six walked over to him and hugged him, purring at his welcome heat. "<em>Mono</em>~" she purred, and rubbed her face against his.</p><p> </p><p>A long, long, endless and grueling journey was behind her, an safety and warmth and love before her. She pulled him tighter into her embrace, her new powers manifesting around him and caressing him everywhere that wasn't covered by her body, pulling him closer. She felt like the cat that got the cream as she held him there, looking at the head of the woman who stole what was hers and played all lovey-dovey with him. Six couldn't believe her luck, in that she found Mono, her most beloved, and also in that he was in the thieving hands of the most powerful monster in this place. Six had been so jealous, so angry each time she saw him with that ugly old woman. He had unfairly been captured by a monster! He still sort of was, but no worries! She would actually take care of him, because they're friends! Friends love each other! Friends adore each other! Friends is the most special relationship there is, because then two people are connected forever!</p><p> </p><p>She and Mono are <em>definitely </em>friends.</p><p> </p><p>Unbeknowst to her, Mono was staring in shock at the face of the woman who had kept him captive all of this time. He did not focus on her features, but instead on the sad look in her dull eyes. He reached a hand for her subconsciously, until Six took it and pushed him down, intertwining their fingers and making him focus on only her.</p><p> </p><p>Where they couldn't see, a lone teardrop rolled down the Lady's eye.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Pretend for me?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Chapter idea by StarScreamNeedsRedemption and SomeSmalllegoBricks</p><p>Thank you!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Groaning, Mono rolled over on his back, head pounding. He fell into a TV and it brought him somewhere really, really far away, else it wouldn't hurt so much. He feels around for his bag, but pauses when he feels a soft texture. It's a bit rough, but it's not floor. </p><p> </p><p>Mono opens his eyes and glances up and nearly screams. Dozens of children sitting lifelessly...wait..dolls? Dozens of child-dolls sitting in rows of wooden chairs before the mass amount of TVs he just fell through, all surrounding a huge, pink sofa thingy. It looks pretty cute, but the static hurts so much he can't breathe. Bag, he needs his bag.</p><p> </p><p>He feels around nearly blind, when the TVs suddenly shut off. He sighs in relief, but it chokes up when he's ripped into the air by a sudden force. Its painful grip shifts from neck to his waist, and he gasps, coughing. He looks down, and sees an adult. He yells in alarm and trashes around, kept still in the air. The elderly man tilts his head up from his bow, and Mono shivers, covering his face from it's piercing gaze. He's scared, really scared. Waves of static emanate from him and bring the TVs back to life as his stress escalates. Electricity crackles around him and shocks the man holding him up with telekinesis. Mono falls down, and crawls until he gets up, running off. The old man looks after him, eyes falling on the small paper bag he left behind in his haste.</p><p> </p><p>He picks it up and looks at it with critique, eyeing a small tear in the bag. He's ought to fix it up and clean it a little.</p><p> </p><p>Royalty shouldn't have to wear ripped headpieces, after all.</p><p> </p><p>This weird place is definitely not the Pale City. It's too well-maintained and clean. He runs until he can't anymore, and then he bursts into a room.</p><p> </p><p>He shuts the door behind him and looks around. It looks like some sort of a really fancy bedroom. It's really pink and glittery, and Mono finds himself smiling cause it's so cute. He would like to have a bright room like this one day. He relaxes a little bit, and walks around. A fireplace is crackling in one wall and it's really warm. He goes next to it to warm up, but pauses when he feels warmth directly on his face. He slaps his hand on his face. Oh no! His bag! His bag is lost!</p><p> </p><p>He looks around himself, but he can't see anything nearby. The bed...the bed should be a good vantage point. He takes some speed and rushes up, jumping and grabbing onto it's edge. Hooray! A grip. He pulls himself up, and starts looking around immediately, not noticing someone else until it's too late.</p><p> </p><p>A screech leaves the bed before him and in his surprise, he falls off. Disoriented, he climbs up again and locks eyes with, well, eyes with hair in front of them. A girl is sitting on the headboard of the bed, her mouth open with a silent scream at an intruder.</p><p> </p><p>"Oh!" He says, "sorry! Sorry!" He scrambles and hides himself behind a loose end of the curtain around the big bed. She relaxes, and looks at him, teeth bared. "Your bed?" He asks clumsily, hiding his face really far into the curtain. She growls and then she pounces on him. They both tumble down onto the soft floor and suddenly she touches him really dramatically. He giggles, it tingles like static but really intense and ticklish. It soreads from her fingertips and enters his skin, making it tremble like something's supposed to happen it but isn't. "Tickles!" He laughs and squirms around. She looks really confused and it makes him giggle even more.</p><p> </p><p>He pounces up energetically and hugs her, tickling her sides in return. She shrieks and pushes him away, leaving him a puddle of laughs on the floor. "My name is Mono! wanna be friends?" He asks her happily. He's found another kid! "I think your hair is pretty." He compliments her, eager to please as always.</p><p> </p><p>The Pretender pauses and her mouth falls open. She looks at this boy who is giggling at her when she tried to make him go away because he interrupted her beauty sleep. His hair is short and spiky, and he looks just like a happy doll when he smiles. His eyes sparkle like black onyx and she finds herself curling her hair around her fingers from shyness. She feels an odd energy humming from him and curling around her, just like when she watches TV with her "friends". He wants to be friends, but someone like him couldn't <em>just </em>be her friend.</p><p> </p><p>She suddenly looks at herself and nearly faints. Her nightgown is a rumbled mess! Her hair is in shambles! She hasn't even brushed her teeth! She can't look like this in front of a potential friend! She storms off to her dressing room, yelling that he better not go off without her. She doesn't yet know how to discipline him if he does, but she'll make sure he remembers it dearly!</p><p> </p><p>Mono blinks, and he goes back to warming himself in front of the fire. The girl seems really explosively tempered, like, like a firecracker! He doesn't really mind, <em>he</em> was the one who barged into <em>her</em> room. He leans himself against his knees, looking softly into the fire while the Pretender despairs over what sort of dress she should wear in order to impress him. She's got pinks, blues, greens, yellows, glittery, glimmery and even shiny! She decides on a pretty green one and takes some time to do her hair right, make it even more shinier and nicer-looking. She's never wanted to look so pretty in her life! She adds her make-up really carefully, but her hand trembles when she's adding lipstick and it looks a bit skewed, but he's waiting for her!</p><p> </p><p>When she finally makes her grand entrance back into her room, the Pretender finds Mono, sleepy little Mono taking a warm nap in front of the fireplace. She should be mad, she should be screaming at him and kicking him and beating him black and blue for not waiting for her properly, but she takes one look at his cute sleepy smile and she finds self-control she's never had before. Uncharacteristically disregarding her high status and beautiful dress, she lays down next to him to look at him better. It feels somewhat comfortable, his warmth radiating over to her cold skin and burrowing right in, making her freezing heart warm up. He looks prettier than any other doll and she looks at him in a daze. </p><p> </p><p>He's beautiful. Not like other filthy children, with their ugly, dirty faces. He looks pure, untainted, and heavenly. Like herself. He's the same as she is. Her heart starts beating faster, and she holds a hand over it, staring at him in a daze. He's nobility, royalty, the highest caste, the top of the food chain, the same as she is. Has she found her fairytale prince? The love of her life? Her heart is beating and beating and beating and it wants to jump out of her chest and into his, pry into that warm chest and discover all of his secrets one by one until he's all hers.</p><p> </p><p>Mono sleepily cuddles up to her and puts an arm around her, and at that moment her mind is made up. <em>This </em>is the love of her life, her prince until forever and ever and <em>ever</em>... she puts her hands on his chest and feels the beat of his pretty heart at her fingertips, and leans up to give him a chaste kiss on the chin. She'll keep him, she'll have him forever. They'll court, then marry, then lead a happy life together once she becomes what she is meant for.</p><p> </p><p>He doesn't have a choice, but she'll play nice.</p><p> </p><p>______________</p><p> </p><p>Mono came to to the soft smell of lavender. He yawned and groggily looked around. Cold water was poured on his head and he spluttered. Shaking his head, he heard yelling and stomping before a kick thudded against something that was floating. He heard an apologetic groan, and then invisible fingers caressing his hair, rubbing slippery liquid into it. He opened one eye, and flinched when he made eye contact with the elderly man from before, sloshing to the back of the weirdly shaped porcelain bucket anf staring at him with distrust. </p><p> </p><p>He heard a coo, and looked to see his friend, leaning over the edge of the bathtub to admire him. He looked at her and waved silently for her to get away, looking at the elderly butler, alarmed at their closeness. She tilted her head, and then looked at the withering old man and snapped at him. Mono watched in awe as the adult whimpered and he felt invisible fingers in on him again, this time rubbing the slippery liquid onto his chest and back and shoulders and arms.</p><p> </p><p>The Pretender almost squealed from how adorable he looked all wet, not at all like the wet dog-look other children had when she watched the butler bathe them roughly after catching them and sending them to her craftsman. Instead, he looked so handsome and shiny, her boyfriend! She continued to stare at him as he flinched when he was lifted up and wrapped in a soft, warm towel. He looked around in confusion as the bundle started rocking gently back and forth. She cast a disapproving glance at the stupid butler who was fixated on the onyx-eyed boy, staring at him without blinking and rocking him back and forth in a warm bundle. Her Mono is way too cute, anyone could fall in love with him! Even her crusty musty old caretaker! She kicked him again out of frustration, and he reluctantly placed him down; still wrapped in the towel. </p><p> </p><p>She ordered for new clothes for him while she stayed with him, closing the door before turning to her special prince with red hearts in her eyes. Mono shyly hid his face into the towel when she hugged him and kissed his cheek, leaving a red kiss mark on his wet face. It stood out against his pake skin surprisingly well.</p><p> </p><p>She clung to him until her stupid cleaner came back with clothes. A clean white undershirt with an outer jacket that matched her dress, a pair of aquamarine silk trousers and white fluffy socks. Only the best for her Mono. She was presenting the clothes to him before the Butler pulled out another set from the carriage, and she scoffed in disgust. An old brown shirt with black pants and a trench coat, there weren't even any socks! And what's that? A paper bag! She was just about to start a tantrum when she heard her beloved gasp in surprise and rush past the clothes she had picked out for him and instead to the old dirty ones. She watched in total shock as he happily pulled on the ill-fitting clothes and buttoned the trench coat, happily pulling on the paper bag with two holes for eyes and smiling. She pinched the bridge of her nose and growled when she saw the Butler smiling.</p><p> </p><p>She's not heartless or stupid, she can tell how much he adores his old clothes, they make him happy so she'll let him keep them for a while.</p><p> </p><p>It seems she'll need to teach her beloved some proper etiquette.</p><p> </p><p>_____________</p><p> </p><p>Mono was running again, giggling as he hid from a frenzied Butler who was tasked to bring him back to the tea room from where he escaped, back to the tantrum-throwing Pretender. She had been showing him how touse all these weird long thingies to pick up pieces of food and eat them off of it. How strange was that!? He only needed his hands to eat! He decided to go explore a bit, he'd only ever seen her room, some corridors, the bathroom and the tearoom. Oh, and the dining hall where he escaped from! It was chock full of dolls with plates and glasses full of food just sitting there, not eating. The Pretender had him sit next to her on the big chair at the end of the dining hall, insisting on sitting on his lap and feeding him whenever it was time for dinner. That was another concept he didn't understand, a time for food. He was so used to just eating whatever he found the instant he found it that he was baffled by the idea of timing your meals. He didn't complain, after all it was free food! He just wished he could take some and bring it back to the refugee camps around the City.</p><p> </p><p>Or at least feed the child-dolls properly. They looked very real. He asked where they came from and she got real quiet and answered simply the Craftsman. He was the one that made all the dolls, from the ones in the tearoom where she drank leafy water with him and at sweet things, to the ones sutting quietly in the dining hall, to the ones in wooden chairs surrounding the big sofa where she brought him sometimes to cuddle and watch some static, her favourite show.</p><p> </p><p>So, of course he wanted to meet the man himself! So Mono took his bag and took his leave, delving deep into the depths of the Nest with the Butler at his heels and a red-faced and upset young lady pouting in their shared room.</p><p> </p><p>He explored all he liked. The underground levels were so much less decorated than the ones in the upper ground. It was dirty and familiar in a way that shouldn't be familiar. Mono ran around, solving puzzles and jumping planks and switching switches. He felt so comfortable in a cold and musty place, much more comfortable than he ever thought he'd feel even when in the actual house with his friend.</p><p> </p><p>Then he locked eyes with a girl in a yellow raincoat. She was holding a small Nome and looking at him with wide eyes from under her hood. He smiled and whispered a "hey!" He ran up to her abd she flinched, almost stumbling and falling but he took her hand and kept her upright. Another friend! He's so lucky! "Hi!" She looked at him in surprise. "Hey..." she said, letting the Nome go. It skittered away, pausing in front of Mono for a bit and hugging his leg, rubbing its head adoringly against his trouser leg, but it went unnoticed as he chatted with yellow raincoated girl. She was from the City as well, and they hit it off really fast, talking and talking while they explored the deep underground, helping each other through puzzles and holding hands. He felt really bubbly all through it, and warm when she hugged him when he told her she was cute.</p><p> </p><p>There was leather and hair everywhere, and Mono was getting a bad feeling as they continued onwards together, him and this secret friend. He gripped her hand when they saw little skulls, and she squeezed him back, pressing close against his side, allies through and through. She shielded him, as he shielded her from the weird shoe monster that almost caught her if it were not for the grip of his hand on hers.</p><p> </p><p>The Craftsman was a poor creature, his feet bent backwards and going in a wheelchair, Mono wanted to give him a cookie if it were not for the struggling child he was opening up, and stuffing them full of cotton. Now he knew where the dolls came from. He, from his shock of the revealed truth, stumbled and fell onto his lap. He was sure he was done for when he was picked ip and inspected, but instead of putting him down to gut him and stuff him, he was caressed gently and petted like a cat. The Craftsman cooed to him in a rough, raspy voice, and Mono saw warmth spark from behind his goggles. He was so terrified as he was offered the corpse of a tiny child as a "gift". The girl in the yellow raincoat, unwilling to lose her only ally and friend to the hands of a grotesque monster, smashed a vase on top of his head and made him go uncobscious, fetching him from the arms of the child corpse and taking him into hers instead, running out of there.</p><p> </p><p>(A black-haired child quietly watched them from around a corner, having been left alone by the Craftsman. The child looks at Mono from behind her bangs intensely, feeling as though she's found something very important too early on, too fast, something she's supposed to find later, after important events have happened. That <em>she's</em> supposed to be the one in the yellow raincoat)</p><p>(<em>She wants that)</em></p><p>(<strike><em><strong>She wants him)</strong></em></strike></p><p> </p><p>He cried quietly, and the girl held him through it, staring at him with dark eyes as she held him tightly against her chest. When they were outside that place, she asked to take his bag off. He agreed, despite his tears and runny nose, and the girl in the yellow raincoat saw his face. She hugged him, and they hugged and bid each other goodbye, going their separate ways, one with the memory of utter anf complete beauty in her mind, and one with the reluctance to part from a dear friend.</p><p> </p><p>(<em>What the girl saw in the black-haired child's eyes when she looked in them was so terrifying she thought she felt blades slicing into her eyes. Pure, sinful envy and mindless hatred for everything she was and she stood for. She would die if she let the child into the shed, she </em><em>knew</em>)</p><p>
  <strike>
    <span class="u">
      <em>(she knew the child was also after what was hers for a brief moment, after the taste of heaven she had for just a little, the warmth and light he carried, and she just couldn't let her live for that. The bagged boy was <strong>hers</strong>)</em>
    </span>
  </strike>
</p><p> </p><p>Mono returned to the Pretender, mostly out of curiosity. What was her true nature? Was the kindness she showed him just a facade? How could a girl who allowed children to die be so nice and loving to him? He was just like any other kid in the world. Why him?</p><p> </p><p>The Pretender had apparently had a lot of time to calm down and cool off and stuff, because she simply smiled pleasantly and invited him to eat with her in the soft tearoom. He cautiously moved towards her and sat down like she ordered him to, accepting her snuggles and spoon-feeding. There was a sense of tension only he seemed to have, the spoiled girl just happily holding his arm and giving him googly-eyes. He smiled at her, wavering when she placed her dainty fingers under his disguise. She ripped it off and he covered his face, shy like she'd just taken off everything that covered him. She giggled and tossed the bag away, taking his arms and holding them away from his face, giving him a big smooch on the cheek. He squirmed under her attention, feeling like there were worms underneath his skin. She kept kissing his face for a while, from his jawline to his fluttering eyelashes, before pulling away and clapping her hands. She told him to close his eyes, and he did, out of fear for more kissing. His entire face was already covered with bright red kiss marks!</p><p>**</p><p>
  <em>(<strike>i know a certain someone who'd tear Pretender's jaw off and toss it out the window if she saw that sight)</strike></em>
</p><p>**</p><p>He heard a floating sound, the Butler? What's he doing here? Something soft was set in front of him. The Pretender told him to open his eyes. He did, and when he looked down they widened.</p><p> </p><p>On a silken red pillow, there lay a crown, like the one you'd see in picture books on a king's head. But instead of gold and silver, it was tiny bones, dozens and dozens of small fingers and ribs and forearms and spines, all polished to an impossible shine, forming a circle that looked very small for a king, with spires and pearly pyres made of small finger bones. Instead of melded metal, bright red veins bound the thing together, placed artistically in curves and twists. Instead of beautiful gems inlaid into it, he saw only the eyeballs of children, selected carefully with the brightest eye colors, blues and greens and yellows and reds and one pair that was bright violet and another that was hot pink, preserved to their greatest colour. It was a masterpiece, a grotesque, gruesome, deadly masterpiece that ended so many young lives.</p><p> </p><p>He tears up, holding a hand to his mouth as not to vomit on the spot. His shoulders shake. The Pretender takes this as cries of joy and overjoyedly hugs him tight, before picking up the "crown", and making him bow his head. She places it onto his head, and oh, that was why it was so small. It weighs on him more than all the static in the world, and he wishes he could become static and float away from here. It feels like the floor would swallow him whole if he moved too much, so he stays still, trying to ignore the black spots of his vision and the feeling as if the dolls were all staring at him, judging him.</p><p> </p><p>"Because you're my prince~" the Pretender says, her first coherent words. She takes his hand and leans against his arm, looking at the vastness of the ocean from their place on the bench she had long-ago cried from loneliness. Mono is silent, staring ahead, so she does not speak anymore and only dreams.</p><p> </p><p>She dreams of their upcoming wedding. He'll never leave her side, even if she has to chain him to herself. Their island, this Love Nest of theirs will shelter them from unwanted outside forces, he'll be given only the best from now, best food, best clothes, best lovefriend, the list goes on and on forever. She'll get rid of all pests that try vying for her future husband, she'll take care of him and make sure he lives in luxury forever. Mono is her king, and she is his princess. She gives him a kiss in her affection, and leans against his arm, clinging to it, smiling.</p><p> </p><p>And they lived happily ever after.</p><p> </p><p>The End</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Cooking Show</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The Twin Chefs adore a little taste-tester/helper</p><p>That’s it. That’s the story</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Chapter by Jack-Degenerate, Inmyword45, AlbinoPhyton and TheGuag,</p><p>This concept is popular, so i’ll try my my best (”^”)</p><p>Thank you as always ^ ^</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A scream echoed, followed by a splash as Mono fell and hit the broth of a soup. He was descending down a chimney, when suddenly a waft of smoke ambushed him and made him cough, loosening his grip and making him fall. Along with him he saw some vegetables and questionable pieces of raw meat floating around, exuding a scent that made him wanna puke. He just swam for a second, floating, and trying to look over the metal edge of the pot he was in. The temperature was climbing up, and he flung himself up and tried to grip the metal edge. No success, and he fell again, making a great big splash as he hit the bottom of the pot and breathed in some musky broth for his trouble. Was he gonna become a part of a weird soup upon his death? Would he be fed to somebody? He really didn’t want to think these thoughts, but it really couldn’t be helped, as the water started making little bubbles at the bottom. He closed his eyes, waiting for the painful end, lower lip trembling.</p><p> </p><p>Something broke the water’s surface, and he yelled when something hard came under him and lifted him up without warning, the rush of hot water leaving him light-headed. Mono coughed, broth leaving his mouth and nose, and he sniffled. A pig-like screech jolted him awake, and he could see that he was on a big wooden spoon, inside a huge kitchen and a monstrous, swollen face was before him. Both he and the chef-thing screeched, the twin chef having tried to taste-test a concoction he was making and encountering a child instead, and Mono, well, duh. Mono was grabbed into grubby hands and the spoon was discarded, and the chef looked at him critically, a small light flashing in it’s eyes. This...is not vermin that it usually encounters in the kitchen? It brings the masked child closer to it’s beady eyes, trying to figure out what made it so different from all the others. This child did not induce an urge inside it to chop it up or throw it into a grinder or into the oven or the deepfryer, but instead, to....to....make something especially for him? Serve him like it would a prestigious guest? Suddenly the chef felt somewhat dirty, like he wasn’t fit to be holding such a divine being in his hands, such a being of extraordinary nobility unlike any on this entire accursed ship. It looked around itself, and felt a great shame, there wasn’t anything for the child to rest his feet on and be served!</p><p> </p><p>Mono looked at the fretting, distressed adult in stunned silence. What is he even doing? Clearing out a soace on one of the counters and setting up a clean pot and a glass next to it, laying out a napkin onto the pot and putting a small bag of flour onto the glass. Even more bewildering was that he was then gently set down onto the bag-glass, the chef running off, squealing wildly. He politely put his hands onto the pot and quietly crinkled the off-white napkin. It was pretty clean, he wonders why the chef took so long to find it. The hygiene here does seem pretty subpar, but he’s not gonna complain as long as he doesn’t get cooked.</p><p> </p><p>The chef rushed to his room, and screeched at the top of his tiny rotten lungs. An oomph answered him as his brother fell off their bed and grumbled at him, his dirty face flabbing in frustration. They yelled at each other argumentatively, before the first chef bonked his twin on the head and grumbled him to follow, they got an important guest in the kitchen. His twin perked up at that, and he raced through the door first. The first chef rolled his eyes, but followed with equal enthusiasm. Brother like brother.</p><p> </p><p>The second chef, upon arriving to the kitchen area, and seeing a tiny Mono, washing his hands in some water he found, bag off, he took some time to process the fact that there was a being that personified beauty and grace localized entirely in their kitchen. Mono just blinked, and rubbed his eyes, thought he was seeing double. No, two chefs. The other hit the other on the arm and he cleared his throat. Mono waved his hand awkwardly, and then realized his bag was off, and so he quickly pulled it back on, sitting back down shyly. The twin chefs suddenly felt a sudden pang of relatability, this boy clearly doesn’t want his face to be seen. The second chef makes a confused noise, and approaches Mono. He can tell it’s not hostile hough, so he stays still and tense. Until the chef picks him up and brings him against his face, making these very specific and pleased sounds that Mono could not understand for the life of him. It sounded strangely like some sort of encouragement, though he cannot be sure. It made him smile a little bit, though, praise is praise. The other chef came in too and they just held him between them, like he was something precious and worth protecting. He was puzzled by these two adults who had come together to comfort him, disregarding their bickerings and statuses.</p><p> </p><p>the two gently set him down and went ahead to do their thing they knew best (or worst) making somewhat edible food! And thus Mono got to watch as they stirred pots, tried cooking meat and then trying again and again until they got it right, chopped up vegetables, and added spices to fish. They boiled, and fried, and cooked, and baked, and it all was just so weirdly, unexpectedly interesting for Mono, he had to try it himself. He clambered down the counter, safely hopping down and trudging up behind one of the chefs, stealthily climbing up his apron to see what he was doing and maybe learn a little bit. The chef got the shock of his life, and looked at the small deity on his shoulder, almost saying a prayer in his wonder. Instead he just patted the small thing, and gave him some excess bread to nibble on as a snack before the real brunch. Mono happily nibbled on the surprisingly fresh bread, and decided that this was heaven right here, under the ocean by kilometers, sheltered in a warm kitchen full of food. He was really, strangely happy and ecstatic for a reason or another, and swung his legs silently. The other chef watched with envy as his brother shouldered the adorable being, and huffed, chopping more vegetables in his jealousy. He COULD take the boy from his brother and put him onto his shoulder instead, but he didn’t want to give a rude impression, and he couldn’t stand the thought of possibly hurting the boy in any conceivable way. So he just stewed in his jealousy, while his brother, all too aware of this, just smirked and continued calmly kneading dough to make some lovely dumplings for the little bagged boy.</p><p> </p><p>_____________</p><p> </p><p>The three of them stayed like that for some time, Mono eventually getting down from one chef and going to checking what the other was doing, much to his overjoy and the other’s envy. This cycle went back and forth until Mono dropped down and started searching around for ingredients to make his very own soup. The chefs both leaned on each other, watching in awe as this tiny child effectively navigated the kitchen in order to find cheese, fish and spices such as salt and pepper, and felt a very odd feeling of dark pride. He was such a great guest! The chefs couldn’t wait to serve him his deserved meal, such a hard-working youngling he was. He would make a great chef someday! But first, he’d need to become a little taste-tester~</p><p> </p><p>They felt somewhat obsessive in how much they craved to feed him and fill him up, make sure he was well-fed for the rest of his life, doted upon endlessly by just the two of them. They would eventually learn to share, like they always did with everything, be it beds, toilets or kitchen knives. An entire lifetime of baking and cooking and caring for a small child with eyes made of molasses was dangling right before them, and all they had to do was reach out and take him into their arms and give him their special, special recipe, made all for just little Mono.</p><p> </p><p>The second chef finally couldn’t bear it anymore and went to snatch Mono up while he was kneading dough for some breadsticks, lovingly stroking his bag and cooing to him in a distorted, high-pitched voice, while his brother went about, finishing up their work. Mono was set down to the table he started out from, and when he looked up to know what was going on, all he was met with was the adoring gaze of a chef to a beloved guest. Mono felt something strange was going on, something had happened, something that always happens whenever he interacts with monsters. He gulped nervously, alarm going off.</p><p> </p><p>the first chef hurried over with a clean silver tray, an unsuspecting-looking tray, but when he opened it, Mono felt something was off. He had clearly seen these things be cooked and baked and prepared, but strangely, this neatly set plate of dumplings, sausages, fish, carrots, mashed potatoes and other savory and saucy delicacies felt off, someway. The chefs waited unnervingly, patiently for him to take a bite. He looked at the sausage, and for a split second, he...he saw....he saw—!</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>(The dumplings, coated with blood, fresh meat on the inside and outside, uncooked. The sausage, a headless child’s body, the fish, body parts stuffed inside and blood running down it’s mouth, dead eyes staring at him. The veggies rotten and purple, inedible. Mashed children’s brains. Obese adults, men and women and everything in between, eating as though crazed, as thiugh addicted, as though they couldn’t breathe if they didn’t have food crammed down their throats. <strong>He can’t eat</strong>.)</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Mono scrambled back as fast as he could, panting breaths, hyperventilating. He knew it he knew it he knew it, adult couldn’t be trusted. The chefs looked at him unblinkingly while he tried to breathe right, staring at them in betrayal. The two of them looked at each other, and smiled, turning to look at the frightened child who saw the truth.</p><p> </p><p>The truth is, there’s a very... <em>special</em> quality to the twins which was why they were picked to be on the Maw in the first place~<br/><br/></p><p>See, the two of them had a special skill to make <em>everything </em>they make like a drug of the most addicitve kind, with a special recipe only they know. Why else would the guests be so maddened and crazed for meat that was barely even cooked, meat that was rotten as their teeth and as stinky as their breath. Only if that was meat was made to make them feel high, on the peaks of ecstasy of the best kind, that made them eat more and more and more, craving endlessly for something to eat afterwards. They loved Mono, they adored him! They loved his little hats, his tiny body, his naivete, his divinity, hsi everything! They wanted him to love them too! So they decided to use a special modification to their little specialty.</p><p> </p><p>An addiction that gave him permanent happiness, forever in utter ecstasy as long as he ate. The chefs would give him more and more and more until he collapsed and even then, just to make him happy, to give him a reason to seek them out and love them. It was a brilliant idea! One that would give utter pleasure and fulfillment until his eyes close for that final time and the chefs could preserve his body in the freezer and gaze upon him forever.</p><p> </p><p>Mono finding out about their plan was supposed to be after he ate his fill, but no worries. The first chef smiled creepily and caught the adorable little escapee by his coat. The second chef politely pulled out his glass-seat, while the first chef tied Mono up using some improvisef hogtying techniques. Mono struggled all he liked, but they still lifted his little bag, and opened his mouth, bring a tiny piece of sausage towards his mouth...</p><p> </p><p>This is why he can’t have nice things, Mono thinks, his last coherent thought before a Hunger awakes within him, craving more and <em>more and </em><b>more.</b> Mono discardds his bag and leaps upon the plate, devouring everything on it, as the chefs gently watch over his tiny form, keeping him safe and warm from all intruders that could awaken him from his little paradise.</p><p> </p><p>(Upon the shelf, a shadowed figure shakes their head, frowning at the carnage the Hunger has once more created. On <strong><em>HER</em></strong> Mono, too. She’ll have to figure this out soon, or he truly will be consumed by darkness.)</p><p> </p><p>(<b>Mono...)</b></p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>(Ẃ̶̲a̷̧̽ỉ̴̦t̴̞͗ ̵͕̋f̷͚̀ò̶͜ṝ̶ ̵̠̈m̸̯̈́ě̵͔)</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Hunted & Bullied</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The Bullies get bored at school without their elementary school sweetheart there.</p><p>So they decide to make their own little "field trip" to the Wilderness.</p><p>The Hunter nor The Teacher is amused.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Request/Chapter by Doc</p><p>Thank you!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Teacher was at the absolute end of her rope. The children screamed and threw tantrums at each other, even in the classroom where it was usually oh so quiet, costing her some of her sanity. Most of her sanity had gone when her favourite escaped detention and never came back to school, so there's that as well.</p><p> </p><p>She screeched and snapped a Jennifor's neck for disrespect. Her head fell and shattered, and she stumbled around like a headless Bully. All of them then proceeded to run screaming and yelling out into the hall, Jennifor crashing into a spare desk at the back and laying there, lifeless as a cloud of papers rose up from their flight and then floated down. She growled and sighed and stretched her neck to look at the papers and go pick them up. Her crusty eyes widened when she saw a particular paper, an old ripped calendar they had hanging on the wall. On the middle of it was a big, red-lettered phrase, no date or anything, just a phrase.</p><p> </p><p>FIELD TRIP</p><p> </p><p>She now has something to give the brats to do while she tries to clear her head off of the loss of her beloved pupil. She goes back to her desk to wait for them to come into he classroom and shoo them away on their unsupervised trip.</p><p> </p><p>The Teacher looks at a poorly-framed drawing on her table. It was obviously made by someone who could only be <em>that </em>child. It depicted her giving him chocolate while he was in bed. She let out a small burst of hyena laughter.</p><p> </p><p>The picture was soon covered in wet, salty spots. His bag was obscured by their salty, salty, wet, saltiness.</p><p> </p><p>_____________</p><p> </p><p>It was, no doubt, a terrible day for all of Pale City. Not only was the local favourite child missing, the local absolutely <em>hated </em>children were wreaking havoc among the poor citizens. Their annual field trip was the most dreaded day of the entire...well, time. Thrashing trash cans, running around and vandalizing public property, tripping poor Viewers and worse yet, breaking their TVs. If they were a developed enough society, there would be some protests about the children or at least some corporal punishment, but nobody wanted to mess with The Teacher.</p><p> </p><p>The scarily organized devil children laughed and jeered at the citizens, mocking and blowing rasberries. Such toughness from beings with literal porcelain hearts. The Hunter was easily reminded of why he hated coming to this place at all. He was here for some shopping at the local hunting shop, for some rounds and a little mini-rifle for his precious. Oh, and also some groceries, and blankets, and heat pads to ward off the cold in the oncoming rainy seasons...he feels like a parent like he never did before. While he's busy fantasizing about Mono in a tiny hunter's cap and checking out his groceries, some Bullies are looking at him from around the corner.</p><p> </p><p>Such a strange man this man is. He obviously is a cyclops, Jennifor insists. He looks like a hunter from the Loony Loos they watch in their dorm rooms somtimes. So much violence in one episode.</p><p> </p><p>But wait, Truis notices. Isn't there something a little familiar on this cyclops-hunter? Jennifor, Jennifor and Truis look at him and then at the Hunter, and indeed. On his belt, carefully strapped there with soft ropes as to not harm the thing, a tiny paper bag. Hunter was going to find the right type an dcolour of tape to fix the little tear at one of it's eyeholes, but that's beside the point.</p><p> </p><p>The point being, this cyclops has Mono. He. Has. <em>Mono</em>.</p><p> </p><p>The meaning of a rainbow at the end of a level 6 hurricane suddenly became clear to the group of Bullies. Wild ecstasy brightened their little minds and Truis even cracks because he smiled too wide. The crack became a Joker-smile in his face.</p><p> </p><p>They run screaming and ceying with emotion to the rest of the Bullies and franctically tell their story. The rest of them are dismissive at most about the cyclops-hunter, but the very second they hear that name, their minds just <em>explode </em>with happiness and excitement. Poor Benny wilted from joy right there, and shattered against the pavement. The Bullies excitedly gathered together to discuss their next course of action, the joker-smile Truis lovingly described the small paper bag to the others, and nearly got torn apart from mindless envy.</p><p> </p><p>The Hunter came out of the shop with his own little sack (save the environment peoples), and immediately noticed the little shiny children standing in there menacingly, eyeing him up and down. The Hunter had seen plenty of children in his life, but never ones this...lifeless. They probably wouldn't make good dolls for Mono to play with. Deeming them worthless, the Hunter walked off, leaving the Bullies, who had now all personally seen the little bag, to their scheming. Obviously they were going to follow him and get their bagged best friend/obsession back.</p><p> </p><p>But wait! What about The Teacher? The Bullies stopped, and thought for a little while. Should they give her the luxury of Mono? That taste of heaven he brings with himself, adorableness in human form?</p><p> </p><p>What a <em>stupid</em> question! Of course not! The Benny who asked that who obviously was a tattler got ripped to pieces to prevent him going to inform the Teacher, and the rest went off, stalking the Hunter like he often stalked his own prey.</p><p> </p><p>Now, the thing about the Bullies is that they don't simply waste away in the School. It is an educational establishment after all. They learned some useful skills in there, for example, tracking, running really fast, and hiding. Cramming into tight spaces was a must when you wanted to kill a newcomer with some traps! All the Bullies here were elites in that field, and that's why, when the Hunter was looking through the stuff he bought, they very silently and very neatly tucked themselves away in his boat. They easily twisted and turned themselves enough to accommodate each other and the tight spaces underneath the boat's seats and sides and underneath all the ropes and buckets. At their best, all of the 24 Bullies hid away on the small, two-person boat without a hide nor hair showing.</p><p> </p><p>The Hunter had no suspicion at all when he heard a surprisingly high-pitched crack when he stepped on one of the rope bundles, and thought it to be the old wood. Jennifor was internally shedding a tear at the loss of her arm, and the Joker Truis just giggled when he saw her arm, twisted. The consequent smack was hidden away by the laps of the waves, and the silent <em>shhhh</em> from all around the boat was just the soft wind blowing.</p><p> </p><p>_____________</p><p> </p><p>Mono was in time-out again, reflecting on his miserable life choices. When he heard a sudden angry shout and a gunshot. It rang in his ears, and he winced. Another angry shout, another gunshot. He just can't get a break in this place, can he?!</p><p> </p><p>Mono got up from the chair placed in the basement just for him (yay) and decided to get out and see what was going on. He hopped down and started to drag the chair to the door, maybe the height would give him more leverage.</p><p> </p><p>Really, he didn't need to, because the very next moment he heard a horrid scratching noise that multiplied over and over, strong, inhuman fingers leaving inch-deep welts into the poor old door. Mono startlibgly gets reminded of countless, endless hours of sitting in a classroom and looking over to see Truis, scratching fast into the Teacher's desk right in front of him. When he got away from it and flashed Mono a grin, Mono saw a crudely drawn---scratched heart with his bag on it and some unidentifiable words underneath it. Possibly his name. He doesn't remember how he felt about it back then, probably some sort of shyness and caution, but right now he's facing something much worse than a scratched heart.</p><p> </p><p>A boy with dead black eyes that seemed to start sparkling when they saw him, and a mouth cracked into some sort of horrifying grin. Soon he was pushed away and a pretty girl's face filled the small hole that was punched into the weak wood. She batted her eyes at him coyly, before again, getting pushed away by the horrifyingly smiling Truis, who then proceeded to break his own neck and spine and start cramming and twisting into the small hole. Mono feels...something, he doesn't know the name of this feeling, only that it vaguely feels like the feeling he gets when he looks up and sees a dangling TV, or when the Hunter gets quiet at hunt as he points his rifle at a horrifyingly deformed pig.</p><p> </p><p>Truis is in, his normally neat hair is ruffled and messy, his overalls ripped and torn and dirty from scuffing with the Hunter in waves of tiny attackers. He opens his arms and his mouth, which accidentalky tears his head too into a glasgow smile because of the crack and rushes at Mono. He's suposed to run away now, but his survival instincts have dulled unbearably much during his stay with The Hunter. He's caught.</p><p> </p><p>Truis catches his crush into his arms, and falls cracked head over heels all over again. He still remembers the day Mono got introduced to the Class, the strange palpitations he got in his chest when he saw the boy for the first time. He squeezes him and tries to set his mouth over Mono's, but his entire face feels like his mouth so he ends up rubbing his cheek onto Mono's soft lips instead. It feels good either way, it makes his heart flutter, so it's okay.</p><p> </p><p>Jennifor, his eternal nemesis, disturbs him again, having gotten through, and having caught sight of a wiggling, distressed Mono in Truis's ugly, thin stick arms. She screeched at him and fiercely grabbed Mono and dragged him into her soft embrace instead, the disoriented child stumbling over and crashing into her, sending them both into the ground. If she could, she would be blushing brightly enough to act as a lantern, gazing up at Mono's onyx eyes, having tumbled on top of her in their skirmish. Truis's eyes blazed with envy, but before he could maul her like the bear they saw that had it's guts out, Benny with a missing left lobe tore down the door and signaled that it's go time.</p><p> </p><p>Both Joker Truis and Jennifor grabbed Mono's limbs and carried him like proper ambulance staff did a patient. Truis of course sneaking wiffs of his hair, because why not.</p><p> </p><p>When they got Mono out, he saw the absolute carnage in the yard. Dozens of Bullies were holding down the Hunter with ropes like in Hulliver----Julliver---Gulliver's Tales. He was screaming and struggling fiercely, tripling his efforts when he saw Mono. There were many a doll body smashed into the ground, trampled by boots or shot by the gun. They really did put effort into this, if only they were like this with homework, maybe the Teacher could finally get a break.</p><p> </p><p>When the Bullies saw Mono, everything melted away. They quickly threw a couple of beartraps onto the Hunter's thrashing body, his screams but a mere background noise to the romantic love songs playing on a loop in the minds of every Benny, Truis and Jennifor that was still alive. Mono shut his eyes when they crowded him, whispering to him quietly and calmly, helping out with carrying him. Mono glanced one last time at the cursing Hunter who was trying to get a trap off his boot, reaching out to him desperately, before it was intercepted by the face of a Benny who, in his adoration, decided to nuzzle him. A moment later, only a faceless doll body was left of him, and Jennifor kicked it ruthlessly.</p><p> </p><p>The saltiness of sea air felt nice in his lungs, it would have been nicer if he wasn't toed up with thick, coarse ropes and watching Bullies shuffle around, organizedly rowing the boat and also dodging the gunshots of a certain cyclops whose shots were too far away and were beginning to miss the boat and hit the water instead. A Jennifor who was chosen for the task of accompanying him took his hand and squeezed it in a way that felt familiar, though he didn't know why.</p><p> </p><p>(Somewhere else, sometime else, a raincoated child ransacking a school building, searching for something)</p><p> </p><p>He just gazed at the starry night sky that faded the closer they got to the pollution if Pale City, and closed his eyes, wishing he were somewhere else, too.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Hospitalized & Bullied</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The Mannequins miss Mono after his internship. They miss him very much.</p><p>So they decide to find him.</p><p>The Bullies nor The Teacher are amused</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Request by Doc</p><p>Thanks for waiting!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Loneliness.</p><p> </p><p>In the darkness of the Hospital, there was not much to do for poor Mannequins like them. The Patients mostly hanged around meaninglessly in the places they were left in, the Hands just laying there lifelessly, tapping their fingers. Endless circles did the unturned lamp spin, the only distraction from the slowness of everything. There was no light, no sound, no Doctor, not even lovely, lively TV screens that they once abandoned in search of something more exquisite, ending up in bodies contorted and twisted beyond abandon. One of the Patients slid out of its wheelchair and thudded onto the floor, no movement occurring in reaction in the room. Nothing was more tedious than time spent here. Thoughts slowed down until there was no more. The Patients wondered if there ever had been anything outside of this numbing trance. Then...</p><p> </p><p><em>Do you remember? </em>one of the lamp-heads said droningly. The others didn't move. <em>Soft hands against our bulbs? </em>Lamp-heads turned to the speaking one, droning on. <span class="u"><em>A rough coat against my fingers</em></span> One agreed, slowly reminiscing. <span class="u"><em>Nice texture</em></span>it thought, fingers twitching in longing, as if they could feel that rough, coarse feeling again.</p><p> </p><p><em>LiKe To HuG, </em>A Hand perked up, <em>SooO SmOoTh, </em>it clenched itself up. <em>WaNnA SqUeeeeeezzze, </em>it rolled over, letting go, melancholic fluids dripping from underneath it's nails. It twisted around, grabbing and playing with something imaginary <em>waNNa squeeeeeeeeze....</em></p><p> </p><p><strong><em>paper bag?</em></strong>the fallen Mannequin asked, throat crushed in. <em><strong>Paaaaapeeer baag...boy? </strong></em>A sudden flurry of activity within the room, as every Patient suddenly fell down, convulsing as if shocked. A tiny, tanned hand on a head, stroking over cracks that caused them to whimper, easing their pain. A tiny, beating heart, right there, against barely held-together fingertips, each strong thump causing bits to fall off. A paper bag boy. What was his name. What was his name. <em>MoNooOoo </em>the Hand moaned, the others stilling.  <span class="u"><em>Mono? </em></span>A lamp-head asked, testing out the syllables, finding they taste like chocolate. It hasn't tasted that in such a long time. <strong>Mono~ </strong>It lets out an inhuman churr, wishing it still had vocal chords to let that name be heard to the world outside of the Mannequins.</p><p> </p><p>Soon, a sickening chorus of moans and cracks can be heard from the Hospital, filling it's walls like a sickly ghost orchestra. Familiar syllables can be heard within the swirling vortex of dead voices, ghostly cries of the damned, and the Doctor drops his scalpel into the thrashing Patient-to-be, who also began choking out a name that had left the facility heart-stricken the last time he visited. The Doctor banged the wall harshly, and the chorus stopped, but it's remains would long echo within the Hospital, an event that would be marked in its history as acting out.</p><p> </p><p>But that's not all there is to this event. This was an expression of yearning, of longing that would repeat each night for weeks upon weeks, a way to sate a loneliness so marrow-deep it didn't even feel real. Mono....Mono.....Mono......</p><p> </p><p>So they continued to sing their desperation, their adoration, night after night. </p><p> </p><p>Until one day their voices finally gave out, and no more of sickly chorus of rhythmical craving for a paper bag boy. It was a dreadful realization, one which shook them to their cords and wires. Botched screams and cries gave oit the rest of their voices, all that remained that wasn't gone yet. Pseudo-Life went back to boredom, a stifling, breath-taking stillness, but now, they remembered, the same cravings of the Viewers they obce were to force Mono inside their rotted bodies to feel the Transmission soak up their insides full-force, now corrupted and shattered, contorted like their bodies. A lonely longing, a siren song filled their botched half-beings utterly.</p><p> </p><p><strong>MuST SeE HIm AGaIN </strong>A hand begged to itself, other mannequins laying around it lifelessly, turning their heads to hear better. <strong>JuSTtt One morE...TIMe...ONe morE </strong></p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Escape escape escape <span class="u">see Mono again</span></em>
</p><p> </p><p>Lifeless thoughts started to stir, half-formed thoughts spinning into action like grinding, rusty gears.</p><p> </p><p>An escape plan started forming</p><p>______________________</p><p> </p><p>The constant rain and cloud of the Pale City was an advantage, as the staggering roup of freakish abominations didn't have to worry about getting frozen into place. Together they rolled forward en masse, like a tsunami of rotted corpses and artificial parts. The alluring lights of the TVs effected not a single Hand of their horde, too weak was their former desire and too strong their current. Viewers cared not for them, engrossed themselves in laying lifelessly against TVs, an ineffective consolation found in the blaring Transmission there, against the loss of something so much more addictive, so much more stronger, now whisked away by white, cracked bodies wrapped in neat uniforms and proper hairstyles, shrieking children full of malice to all but their "Student council president".</p><p> </p><p>The Patients cared not about these things though, the handful of brain cells still found in their heads too infatuated with the thoughts of paper bags and warm, calloused hands. They slowly marched forward, a wide, looming building with an Eye for a clock their destination. Rats near sewer gates watched with their black, beady eyes as a horde of former Viewers ripped open the metal fence surrounding the school, harmlessly passing inside. Some of them tripped on the leftover toys from the Bullies, the presence of scratc marks in the ground and shattered porcelain growing more and more as they left disfigured footprints on the wet, muddy ground. What was left of their consciences were used in getting inside. The Living Hands neatly climbing up a lamp-head to get to the outstretched half-limb it was pointing towards the door handle, slotting itself where its hand should be and turning the handle. The door fell open with a poorly-oiled creak, to dim hallways that slowed them down but didn't obstruct movement.</p><p> </p><p>The world went still as they passed into foreign territory, Hospital to School. Wooden floor felt strange against their feet, as they rolled forwards, they had to cramp together in order to fit between the crooked rows of lockers. They walked forward in silence, intent on searching for Mono, when a Hand pressed on a raised floorboard. A shutter of wind and then a Patient's head was nothing but glass shards and crooked metal, a metallic old bucket hanging innocently from a rope with oil splatters from the Patient on it's side.</p><p> </p><p>No reaction from the horde as the one who got struck fell down and no longer moved, they only kept going forward, now more careful about the pranks.</p><p> </p><p>___________</p><p> </p><p>Predators called "Bullies" crouched by the mangled figure, sharp clicking noises and chirrups coming from them as they examined it curiously with a surgical mindset. They poked and prodded in wonder as the thing twitched, the lamp on it's head flickering in the glass shards it still had. They caught something really weird in their traps! Time to show Mono! Truis snapped at Jennifor and Benny to get going while he pulled apart the thing's torso, searching for something interesting to impress his adorable crush with! When he pulled out a crumpled picture though, he paused. The Mannequin suddenly twitched at the loss of it's precious memoir. "Mooooo......noooo......" Truis's porcelain fingers shook, almost tearing the picture in shreds, a clogged feeling in his throat. Something burned bright in his chest, a searing, bright, <em>bright</em> <em>green </em>flared near his porcelain heart, making small cracks in it. Jealousy crumbled his smiling face, and black, bubbling tears appeared in his hole eyes. There, in the picture, Mono was giving a friendly kiss on the forehead to the Patient, who was holding him gently.</p><p> </p><p>Truis's enraged screams were heard through the entire school, The Bullies holding Mono's hands and massaging little circles into his knuckles pausing for a moment, looking into the direction of the noises, before being reminded what they came here for in the first place. Mono's eyes and ears wrre swirling by the time their loud-mouthed explanation and flailing with hands was done with. "Slow down?" He asked, holding his head and looking up, squinting his eyes. A lamp for a head? Metal with body? Alive yet dead as Lunch Lady? That sounds familiarly like...</p><p> </p><p>In that instant, screeches of Bullies rose in volume as a commotion started outside the Sleeping Rooms where Mono was placed for protection (which he protested because he didn't need it) and Jennifor and Benny were instantly in front of him, shielding him jealously from anyone who would <em>dare </em>enter The Geat and Gracious Student President Mono's private chambers. They had strict rules in place on who could come to visit him at which hours of the day, on which they had all agreed. Probably some starved lunatic who had missed their chance yesterday and wanted compensation, the Bullies could tear that fool limb from limb, no big deal.</p><p> </p><p>But, when instead of a crazed Jennifor or Truis or Benny, there was a dismembered hand forcing it's way through the tight crack of the door, they short-circuited in shock. They froze in place, allowing tthe absolutely delighted little hand to skitter in between them,  and start preparing for a jump. Mono's wide eyes stared at the thing, surprise evident in the features under the bag. "Hand?" He said in uncomprehending wonder, the tone of which made the hand falter in it's jump from sheer adoration and faint, fingers twitching, on it's back of hand. The Bullies finally snapped out of seeing the medical miracle, and snapped their heads backwards, growling and snarling. It faltered pretty quickly when they saw the peaceful way Mono's perfect hand stroked the lines of the dismembered palm, causing it to curl up into itself in order to catch his hand into it's center, but the Bullies twisted its fingers down in order to let Mono's hand continue being unbruised from the strong force it would have gripped him with.</p><p> </p><p>Much shrieking and hissing went back and forth between the four sans Mono, Benny holding Mono's arm and staying close to him, while Jennifor wrestled with the hand. Mono tried to get out of Benny's grip and do <em>something </em>instead of being held like a doll by the other child, struggling when Benny pinned him down and got on top of him to keep him safely away from the fight, and oh! The hand got a hold of Jennifor's braid and ripped it out, her horror at the loss of beauty and chance to keep other girls away from Mono with it causing her to faint dramatically and lose the fight. She twitched and went still, and Mono lurched towards her immediately, and would have gotten off the bed if it weren't for Benny's thin limbs wrapped around him in hysteria.</p><p> </p><p>The Hand crept victoriously forward, if it had eyes two thirds of them would be zeroed in on Mono, obsessively looking at every detail and the remaining third would stare at Benny's pitiful, shaking form hatefully. It prepared for a jump, hissing and all Mono could hear were the shrieking cries of Benny as he clawed at the monster hand clutched around his face with one hand, the other desperately seeking Mono's for comfort. The cracks that appeared around the teary eye seen from a gap in the fingers made Mono wordlessly take the weak hand nto his own, and squeeze it. Benny smiled with joy, and then his head crumbled around the Hand, only a headless porcelain body left behind.</p><p> </p><p>Mono whispered silent comfort to Benny under his breath, choked off when the Hand leapt off and and wrapped itself around him. <em>WaNNA SQuuueEZE! </em>Mono's bag was knocked half-off as the fingers tightened around his chest squeezing the breath out of him. <em>MoNO! </em>His vision was going spotty and he felt a pressure in the bones of his chest <em>HUg Me!!! </em>he gasped for breath, nails clawing at the skin of the hand, leaving white scratches into it. The Loving Hand churred at the feeling, embracing him more and more and more--!</p><p> </p><p>Until The Hand felt Mono go still underneath it's fingers, weak, shuddering breaths raising his chest up and down scarily light. In a panic, the Hand hopped away, just as the door was busted open by a group of Mannequins, all covered and lodged with porcelain, bodies of shiny material laying behind them motionlessly. They all crowded around the bed, Hands climbing on to check, and when they saw the situation, they hissed and jumped on the culprit and broke its fingers into a mangled mess. It twitched pitifully, feeling a sense of karma and self-deprecation.</p><p> </p><p>The two Hands slotted themselves into the stubs of the lamp-head mannequin, and held Mono carefully in their palms as the Patient moved it's arms to pick him up. Another Mannequin with a clothing hanger hook for a hand went over and put the dull tip under  Mono's shirt, feeling his heartbeat throb against its hook. Pleasurable affection caused it to accidentally press too hard and cause a cut in the fragile skin, and when it retracted his hook, other Patients ripped it out of its hand, leaving it to clutch it in pain.</p><p> </p><p><span class="u"><em>Mono hurt</em></span> says the lamp-head holding him with care, sad flickering in his bulb. His coat feels so nice, it thinks. It wants to hold it to its bulb and feel it against its most sensitive area, but it holds back. It knows that if it goes through with the course of action, the jealous others would rip it apart. <em>DoooCtOR MIgHT HeEELp </em>one of the hands Mono was laying in supplies helpfully, enjoying the soft weight of Mono's warm head. He shifted silently, distress furrowing his brow as his dreams took a turn gor the nighmarish, full of twisted, mangled bodies up close and personal, and a feeling of suffocation and choking following him throughout it.</p><p> </p><p>Thusly they begin their march all again, stepping on countless Bully bodies and cracking them without care, all attention sucked up by Mono and his warmth. Their trek to the Hospital was quite an eventful one, Mono exchanged hands many times because the desire deep within them to be one with the unconscious Transmission flowing from him got too much and they started trying to force him through their chests into their hearts.</p><p> </p><p>Until finally, a familiar, familiar building lit up their blurry field of vision, and Mono whimpered within his dream. The long-fought war between the enraged and overprotective Bullies and the stubborn, inhuman Patients had them exhausted, and the Doctor could only watch wide-eyed as his Patients collapsed one by one by the entrance, holding a tiny, softly breathing paper bag boy in their hands.</p><p> </p><p>____________</p><p> </p><p>The constant ringing of the phone went unanswered, the Doctor far too focused on treating Mono to answer The Teacher's inquiries on why her school was a mess and almost all of her students were either dead for the time being or in intensive care in the Nurse's office.</p><p> </p><p>The Teacher slammed the phone down, her angry screeches ringing through the huddling Bullies's heads, causing some to get cracks in their ears.</p><p> </p><p>It really wasn't a very good day for them.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Requests of characters and events from all of the Little Nightmares-verse are extremely welcome, as are comments in general!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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